Fun in the Sun

Summer is in full swing and we are trying to make the most of it.  With an active 2-year old, I've found that I'm going out and doing things that I wouldn't normally.  But before I get into that, I want to put in an update of Brandon. He's in a partnership with a couple guys with a company called Cinema Book Trailers.  As the name suggests, they make book trailers that are so awesome that they look like legit movie trailers.  Yep, they're that good.  At least, that's what they're trying to do. They've done a few things so far, and hopefully they'll continue to pick up speed and projects. Recently, they finished production on a fantasy book called "The Golden Cord" by Paul Genesse. When it's done, I'll post a link to where you can find it.

Orem has a SummerFest and we went with some friends.  This ended up being a blast for Kayla even though we were only there for a couple hours. 

They had a lot of fun rides for the kiddos to ride on.  (Kayla's friend is actually laughing)

She loves the carousel!

You better watch out for these two drivers!

A couple weeks later Kayla and I went to the zoo (again!) with some friends and their kids.  It was so much fun! We went during the week and first thing in the morning.  I think that was the best thing to do because a lot of the animals were pretty active.  We had so much fun! But I'll let the pictures say it all. 

I was pretty proud of that  framing

Watching the ostriches in Hogle Zoo's new Safari exhibit  

Here's looking at you kid!

Kayla's favorite part of the whole zoo adventure

I was finally able to get the kiddos to smile at me all at the same time!

Just to prove I was there, too.

She loved it so much we had to go one last time before we left.

I'm grateful we went the the zoo when we did because the next morning, I sprained my ankle going down the stairs.  Nothing broken, but highly inconvenient.  Brandon and I were a pretty silly sight going into the doctor's office: me on crutches and Brandon in his boot. both left feet messed up.  I guess we have to do everything together, literally.  I'm grateful that Brandon was far enough in his healing process that he could take care of Kayla while I was out of commission. I'm doing a lot better now.  Hardly any pain. So now we can have more fun during the summer!

Along with all the fun adventures we're having around Utah, we also have an adventure in our back yard. Even though we weren't able to do as much as we wanted to due to injuries, we still got a really good yield in our garden. Here's what it looks like:

Strawberry Hill (Kayla won't stop eating them)

Left to Right: strawberry hill, lettuce, tomatoes (behind my bum sorry), onions,
carrots, peas, cucumbers, more peas, pumpkin patch

And now we're into July where there's nothing but sun, sun, sun.  We went to Colorado to spend 4th of July with Brandon's family.  We had so much fun!  Kayla got her Grandpa Time in and practically everything she asked for from Grandma.  I was too busy relaxing to do much picture taking, but here are some things we were able to get.

She loved Grandma's yoga mat and found a lot of interesting ways of playing with it.

She loves her grandma

She let Grandma do her hair!

I did get a video of Grandma and Kayla dancing together, but Grandma didn't know she was being filmed, so we'll just keep that to ourselves.  Needless to say it was extremely adorable and hilarious. Things you do for that face up there.

And then, as if our extended weekend couldn't get any better, we went to a community pool, and Kayla LOVED it.  It was a struggle to get her out when it was the adult-only time to swim.  All of us ended up getting out, too because if she saw one of us in, she was going in as well. I love that she loves the water so much.  My mom would tell stories of how I was a fish as a small girl. It's fun seeing little bits of my personality and preferences coming out in her. Mostly, I think she's more like Brandon. But we'll see how her own personality develops as she gets older.

If you notice in the video, she started going for the diving board.  She eyed it several times and once went over and stood in line to jump off it!  Luckily, Brandon got her away from there and safely jumping into Grandma's arms from the side of the pool.  I don't think she realized what really happened if she jumped off it (her head would go all the way under) and we know she doesn't like it.  Silly goose. Besides that, I'm super impressed by her swimming skills. Hopefully I can teach her all I know and she'll be a fantastic swimmer. 

So I think thus far our summer has stayed pretty busy. And I know we have more fun adventures coming our way!  I love my family so much!

Spring is Here! I think...

Lots of exciting and not-so-exciting things have happened over the last couple months, and I am determined to write them down. There will be lots of random moments in this jumble that is our life in the Ho House.

The first one is about Brandon. Love of my life.  Back in March, Kayla and I decided to go to the park because it was a BEAUTIFUL day.  We were having a really good time until a crazy little idea popped into Kayla's head.  Our park is right next to an elementary school, and this school has their own small playground.  Kayla saw it and wanted to go over to play there.  The whole time I was trying to explain to her that we can't play there. Being a 2 year old, she doesn't listen to anything you have to say unless it's something she wants.  We get to the small playground and I finally pick her up and try to start walking back to the playground she CAN play on. Being a 2 year old, she's kicking and screaming, making it very difficult for her mommy to carry her anywhere without a lot of effort. When I put her down I noticed that in the thrashing and crying, she had broken my necklace.  It was a simple necklace: a silver chain with a tiny CTR ring looped on it; the CTR letters were actually a Chinese character.  The ring was one of the first gifts, maybe even the first gift, that Brandon gave me when we were dating.  It had fallen off when the necklace broke, and I didn't realize how much it meant to me until it was gone. We went home and Kayla told Daddy why Mommy was sad and said that he could fix it.  Brandon put the chain back together, and that made Kayla happy.  She said "Daddy fix it!" He comforted me and I was resigned to the ring being lost. 

The next day was Sunday. Brandon was busy with church meetings, so I didn't see him much until the evening.  When he got home and into more comfy clothes he got a text message and told me he needed to go back out again.  There was nothing surprising in that, so he changed, left, and I finished making dinner.  He came home soon after that with my tiny CTR ring.  Then he went on to tell me how earlier that afternoon he went out looking for it but couldn't find it either.  He asked a couple people he met at the park and asked them to keep their eye out for it and to contact him if they found it.  Someone did! I couldn't believe it! Brandon was so sweet to go and do something like that for me. It's those simple things that he does that means so much.  I'm really lucky to have him.

I felt like I needed a picture break before I moved on to the next fun event in my life. This is a picture of a few of my tulips that came up this year in my garden.  They all turned out so beautiful! I love my tulips!

One of the biggest events in March, for me, was Brandon's birthday. I've been planning it since the beginning of the year, so I was very excited for it to finally come.  Brandon turned 29 this year, so I wanted to make it a memorable one.  It's his last year in his 20's; we needed to celebrate! So I surprised him by taking him to Nickle City in Orem. He knew we were having a party, but didn't know where exactly.  We got a group of friends together (and their families) and had a really fun time.  Brandon was surprised and very very happy.  We had pizza, cake, and  ice cream.  Unfortunately, I was an idiot and didn't take pictures of my beautiful cake that I made!  It was a two-tier cake with yummy cream cheese icing (dyed blue) and surrounded by twix bars. I had balloons for the kids (including Brandon), and I still have some left over on the ceiling of my house weeks later!  The best part about having a party at Nickle City was that I didn't have to worry about the entertainment.  They could just go and play games! I loved it! Brandon loved it; and Kayla really loved it! We'll have to go there with her again.

The next day, we went to the Filmed in Utah Awards.  Brandon's feature film, Missed Connections, was nominated for 9 different awards.  Unfortunately, we didn't win anything, but it was fun to get all dressed up and go to the awards ceremony.

Now we enter into the month of April.  It's been a pretty interesting month.  Some good. Some not so good.  So here we go!

The first weekend of April is always one of my favorites.  It's General Conference weekend: two days of spiritual enlightenment from the leaders of our Church.  One of the traditions we now have in connection with that weekend is visiting my brother, Clark, and his family.  Either they come down to us or we go up to Idaho to visit them.  This time around, we went up to them.  They have a little girl about 9 months younger than Kayla, and they have so much fun together!!!  Sometimes it's so much fun, the mommies don't get much out of a talk or two...but these cousins sure do love each other.

One of the things I like about April, beside my beautiful tulips, is the warm weather after a long winter.  Having a very active child cooped up inside for that long just makes us all go a little crazy.  So on any warmish day, you can find us at the park.  Hopefully with some of our friends, too. Parks make everyone so happy!

This is Kayla with her friend/cousin Amy. They love playing together!

And this is Kayla with Cami playing "Ring Around the Rosie" 

The other fun things that come with warm weather (though I guess it's not really necessary, just nice) are BBQs and S'more nights at our fire-pit.  I had given Brandon a s'more box for his birthday, so we could keep all his yummy s'more making goodness all together.  Best present ever! A friend of ours had a birthday the same day Brandon planned a S'more party so Brandon asked me to make a s'more cake.  This time I took a picture!

I found the recipe on Pinterest, and it's super yummy! It's a graham cracker cookie with a brownie mix and marshmallow cream in the middle.  I think I'm going to tweak it a little more to get the sizing right.  Right now, it's a little on the thick side (I think at least 6" tall). Needless to say, Brandon will appreciate any "testing" I do on this yummy thing.  Now all I need is a kitchen torch...

The next best thing about April (most years anyway) is Easter.  It's a time to celebrate and remember the sacrifice of our beloved Savior and His resurrection.  Our Father in Heaven loved us so much that He sent His Son to suffer for our sins and die for us.  Our Savior loved us so much that He experienced the atonement so that we might one day live with Him and our Heavenly Father again.  What ultimate examples of love.  And if we love them even a little bit, then we must do our best so that the Atonement wasn't made for us in vain.  I've been thinking a lot about this and families in particular.  Christ atoned for us so that we can be forever families.  He was resurrected so that we can one day be resurrected with our families, too.  It all boils down to families.  Everything.  The gospel, the purpose of the Church, our purpose here on earth, and the ordinances we do for ourselves and those that are dead.

I love my family, all of them.  They enrich and bring joy to my life.  Raising my daughter has really challenged me and helped me become a better person.  I have such hopes for her, but ultimately I hope that she continues to be the happy, sweet girl I know she is.  

Easter morning, when I dressed Kayla up in her pretty dress (thanks Mom!), she wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a decent picture, so I had to get a video instead.

That afternoon, we did a small Easter egg hunt for Kayla (loved it), and then had the Bobo's over for Easter dinner.  I really liked the idea of making dinner extra special for that day.  We had ham, slow cooked scalloped potatoes, rolls, salad, and deviled eggs.  Everything was so delicious!  I feel a tradition coming on...

And that brings us up to date to this week.  And though it's only been three days this week, they have been pretty full, kinda stressful, and pretty much  overshadow all the good things that happened this month.  At the beginning of April, Brandon went to play basketball with the Elder's quorum.  He stretched, warmed up, and then started to play a game of 21.  He shot the ball, then seeing that it wasn't going to go in the basket, went to go after it.  He took one step, heard a pop, and went down.  It wasn't a loud pop in his ankle, and he didn't feel a whole lot of pain, so he came home where we elevated it and put ice on it even though he didn't get much swelling.  We later got a brace, and he went on crutches for a while until he felt good enough to limp along without one.  He continued to get better, but was still having trouble putting pressure on the front part of his left foot.  On Sunday (the 27th) as we were coming home from church, Brandon decided to try his foot out a little bit.  He didn't put a lot of pressure on it, but it didn't take much for the rest of his Achilles heel to tear.  That same day, we went to a friend who's a physical therapist and he did a reflex test and told us that it had completely torn. We then speculated that it had partially torn at the beginning of the month and then finally finished tearing the rest of the way that day.  Monday, we make a lot of phone calls to various doctor's offices, and finally found one that accepted our health insurance (I didn't realize that would be the hardest part of the process, but that's another rant for another day).  We went in today and they verified via a sonogram that it had indeed torn all the way.  Brandon will have surgery.  He's going in tomorrow to consult with the surgeon and will then schedule a time to go get that done sometime within the next week or two.  It should be a one day hospital visit.  No overnight.  Just the surgery and then a boot for however long it takes to recover.  Hopefully everything will go that easy, so I will be praying that happens.  Through this whole thing, Kayla's been really sweet and understanding that her Daddy can't always pick her up and run with her like he used to.  She's confident that the doctors will fix Daddy's foot. I love her for that.

So with all of April's ups and downs, I'm really glad it's over.  May, here we come, whether I want it to or not...I'll just be happy if it's warmer that what we've gotten so far this week (rain, snow, and lots of chilly wind). May it be filled with warm park days for Kayla and safe recovery days for Brandon.  

Summer Fun

There's been so much going on that it's been hard to sit down and write about it, but I'll do my best.

June was a pretty crazy month.  Brandon and I got asked to be leaders for our Stake's Youth Conference.  We got a little "family" that we were in charge of.  I didn't realize how much work we had to do before the actual Youth Conference even started.   Luckily, our Stake is only about an 8 block radius so we didn't have to travel too far to contact our kids.So we organized a little party for our "family" so they could get to know us and us them.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  After all the meetings, paper organizing, packing lists and permission forms distributed, it was finally  time for us to pack and go to Youth Conference!  (We couldn't take Kayla with us, but luckily my mom was available to watch her while we were gone.)

It started out at the Stake Center with a Carnival of Life activity.  There were a lot of misgivings about how the kids would take it (for those who've done it would know what I'm talking about), but I think they were just fine.  The Stake leaders handled it very well so that the kids got the point of the activity: it was centered around Christ's Atonement and its power to save us. After lunch we got on the buses and headed down to Manti.  We were set up in tents and then went down to the Manti Pagent after dinner.  That was a really cool experience.

The next day we drove up to the church's Heber Valley campsite.  It was up in the mountains, so it was much cooler than down in the valley.  We were put in cabins: Brandon with all the other male leaders in one cabin next to the boys, and I was in the cabin with my girls.  We went on a sunrise hike (luckily we didn't have to be there for the sunrise, otherwise we would've had to wake up at 5am), did some service, and generally had a fun and spiritual experience.

Here's our family:

After Youth Conference we did a little mini-family reunion. These are really awesome kids.

While we were off having fun with older kids, my mom and some friends of ours were having fun with Kayla.  Mom watched her for a couple days until she had to go down to St. George to visit with her dad. So Adam and Ashley played with Kayla for a day.  They went to the aquarium in Sandy.  Kayla loves fish, so she had a lot of fun there. We'll have to take her ourselves sometime.

Right after Youth Conference was the 4th of July.  We hosted a BBQ at our house for my whole family.  My mom and Mike were in town visiting everyone out west, and we wanted to make a centralized location for everyone to come visit her.  (One of her brothers came all the way down from Washington to see her.) So we found out that we can host a party of 50 in our back yard.  We also learned that we get absolutely NO shade at 4pm in July.  Things got a lot cooler by 6, though, so it wasn't too bad (I hope!) for everyone.  The food was good; the company was fabulous, and I know my mom had a lot of fun.  

Before everyone left, Brandon got some fireworks and set them off on our driveway.  We learned that Kayla does not like fireworks.  She huddled in my arms the whole time.  And these were the fountain fireworks! Not even the really loud ones! My poor little girl. The kinda funny thing is that Brandon recorded it on his iPhone, and Kayla keeps watching it and says "fireworks!" so I think she'll get over the loud noise and enjoy them when she's older.  Our neighborhood also shot off a lot of fireworks that night, so we got to see them all over the place.  It was a good night.

A couple weeks later, Brandon and I were able to go on a date! Yay! A wonderful family in our neighborhood loves to watch Kayla, so they took her for an evening while we went up with another couple to Salt Lake City to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform at the Conference Center. It was the Pioneer Day Celebration, and they had Lindsey Sterling and Nathan Pacheco perform with them.  It was really awesome.  Nathan Pacheco has a beautiful voice, join that with MOTAB and it was AMAZING.

At the end of July there was a wedding!  Emily Bobo is a Bobo no longer!  So, my family had to get together again to celebrate this awesome day.  My brother, Clark, and his family stayed at our house while my mom flew out here again and stayed at my sister, Jessica's.  The morning of the wedding, we were invited to a wedding breakfast up in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  We dropped off Kayla at Jessica's house where the babysitter was and headed up to Salt Lake City.  The breakfast was awesome and we got to see what kind of man Emily was hitching herself to.  He seems like a really awesome guy; they're going to have so much fun together.  Then we walked around Temple Square until the sealing that afternoon.  It was my first time at that temple, and the little that I saw was beautiful. It was a beautiful ceremony.

Later that night was the reception at the Capital Building.  They set it up in the rotunda.  It's a beautiful building with marble everywhere. We got some nice family pictures from it.

Since most of my family was in town we decided to get together for a BBQ at our house on the weekend.  It was a perfect day for a BBQ: cloudy and cool for July.  Unfortunately before we were able to cook the hamburgers we had a bit of a scare.  Kayla scratched her eye and we had to go to the doctors.  So we left my family at our house to eat food while we went to help Kayla.  They checked her out and found a nice big scratch right on her pupil. They gave us a prescription gel to put in her eye that would numb the pain.  The worst part was holding her down while we did it.  We then had to go to the doctors the next day to see if it's healing.  We went in and it was completely healed. Eyes heal fast! It hadn't been 24 hours and the scratch was all gone.  I'm so grateful that she healed so fast. It's the worst thing in the world to see your baby in pain, and there isn't much you can do to help but hold her.

Besides that little adventure we had a lot of fun with Clark, Lonnie, and little Makenna.  Kayla loves her cousin. They had so much fun together.  Kayla was asking for her all the time. So cute!  

And that was our fun-filled June and July.  On to August where the fun doesn't end!!!

March Madness

I could blame a lot of things for why I haven't posted a blog yet this year: my mom's wedding, work moving locations, Kayla, Brandon's busy movie making, work changing cell phone carriers which I was in charge of, Kayla, a new calling in the Ward, reading the Wheel of Time, Kayla...etc. All those things happened, but they're really just excuses for my laziness.  So I feel like I need to apologize for my neglect.  I love posting pictures of Kayla and giving everyone updates on the Ho family life. So, I will try to be better. Here we go...

At the beginning of March, it rained one weekend. That one event created what I am going to call Spring Fever and it spread to the Ho household.  I believed that since it rained, winter was over.  It's time for change and warmth.  So, the logical people we are, Brandon and I started working on the front and back yards. I started weeding my tulip garden in the front.  It took me three days during Kayla's nap time to get my one section done.  Brandon started working on the garden/patio in the back. It's a lot more work than both of us anticipated.  Brandon's gotten a lot of help pulling out a tree stump and redoing the patio/fire-pit area.  It's morphed into a Ward service project/BBQ scheduled for this Saturday unbeknownst to us until it was announced in Elder's quorum. I thought that was pretty funny, and we love having a party.  The more the merrier. Hopefully when it's all done, I'll show before and after pics.  I think it's going to turn out well.

Kayla's been growing and learning so much.  She hit the 18 month mark in February and she was looking really good and on track developmentally when we had the doctor checkup.  She's become Miss Independent. She'll spend 15 minutes trying to get her shoes and socks on herself because she won't let us touch them.  It's really cute except when we're trying to go somewhere and need to leave soon... :)  

She also believes that the Kindle Fire is HERS. We've got a few games on there she likes to play, and she's getting really good at them.  Her favorite game is My Little Pony. She also likes to play Angry Birds but shoots the birds the wrong way.  It's pretty funny to watch.  

Kayla's also getting her ABCs down really well.  She can repeat most of the letters back to us, and she's recognizing letters in the books she "reads" and other various places you see letters.  I've been really impressed with how quickly she's learning.  It's been a really fun experience watching her grow.

Of the three of us, I think Brandon's been the busiest.  Besides working at the LDS Motion Picture studio, he's got several independent projects going.  I'll list a few: 

• Working with his cousin, Steve James, on some music videos for children
• Finishing the post-production on his short film, Steamed Dumplings 
• Starting up a company called Cinema Book Trailer with a couple other guys. As part of an effort to get their names out there, he's doing a book trailer for Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. Here's a link to a book trailer one of the other guys did: The Maze Runner
• Finishing the post-production on his feature film, Missed Connections.  We'll go to the Premier showing on April 5th, so everything's gotta be done by then.

That's not everything but just the major ones, I think.  He's doing some script work on other projects he has in mind.  He's just crazy busy.  But what I think the most amazing thing about all this is that  he gets of work early so I can go to my meetings for my Ward calling, he's a Webelos leader for the Cub Scouts, and he takes the time to watch Kayla while I work in the mornings.  I know Kayla appreciates the time he spends with her.  She's a Daddy's Girl and I love that. I'm a Daddy's Girl, too.  Daddies are so very important to their little girls; it's a special relationship that everyone should have in their lives.

Now for what everyone's been waiting for: the pictures.  I took this one yesterday while Kayla and I were playing in the back yard.  It was her idea. Not mine.

 The stump came up to my chest and the fence came to somewhere by my head, so that might give you a reference for how far up she is.  Silly girl.

Here's one where I got her to look at me and smile. I was impressed that I was able to get the shot. I used my phone (which has a weird delay), and the sun was pretty bright.  If that's not adorable, I don't know what is.

More pictures and videos to come, hopefully, soon. :)

Happy Spring.

Give Thanks

Yes, it's a couple days past Thanksgiving and people are probably already have all the Fall stuff down and the Christmas decorations up (I did that today), but I can still post a blog about my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving.

It all started with my childhood.  Every year, without fail, Thanksgiving was spent with our family friends, the Bobo's.  One year we'd go to their house (wherever in the country that happened to be) and the next they'd come to ours (always in Aiken, SC).  We'd have our Graham-Bobo family line up which started in age, oldest to youngest, and then as we got older we added a line based on height.  Phil, the youngest in the Bobo family, ended up the tallest boy, and I, the youngest in the Graham family, ended up as the tallest girl.  Funny how that happened.  Anyway, when we were pretty young, we also used to do a pyramid. Description for those who don't know: biggest kids on their hands and knees on the ground with smaller kids on top of them in the same position in the shape of a triangle till we got one kid at the top which was usually me.  We have many photo albums of these lines and pyramids throughout the years and it's fun to see how much we've all changed and grown.  On Thanksgiving day we'd have a ton of yummy yummy food.  The next day we'd have leftovers, go to a movie, and eat pizza.  When the family who was visiting had to leave to drive back home, one of us would try to stow away in their car (which never worked! observant parents!) and the rest would run after the van as they drove away.  That's pretty much how it happened every year.  The oldest kids would drop out of the line as they left for school, went on missions, or got married, but we would still get together with them until practically all of us were out of the house.  Those were really fun times.  Sometimes I feel like I know the Bobo's better than my actual blood-family.  

Now, as we all have our own families we still try to find ways to get together with the Bobo's.  A lot of us ended up in Utah so that makes it a lot easier to get together.  My best friend growing up, Katherine, ended up marrying Phil, so that made it even easier to get together.  This year we had Thanksgiving with the Bobo's again.  We went to Katherine and Phil's house; another Bobo sibling was there along with two of my siblings.  We had excellent food and wonderful company.  It was like old times.  We even thought one of the young boys had stowed away in another family's van, which ended up not being true, but it brought back good memories anyway.  Phil made a comment about how he thinks our kids won't find out that none of us are actually related until they're like 14 which I thought was funny and really true.  We act like family even though we aren't blood related.  And I guess that's the point I'm trying to make with all of my rambling.  You can treat anyone like family, especially on Thanksgiving.  It's the time to come together to remember all that we're thankful for, eat good food, and enjoy the company.

Another reason why Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays is that this was the holiday 6 years ago that gave me the excuse to visit Brandon in Colorado while I was going to BYU.  We had met that previous August and I wanted to see him again.  Somehow it worked out that I would go out there along with one of Brandon's old missionary companions, and we'd stay for the weekend.  I'd really never done anything like that before, but I'm so grateful I did.  I'm also extremely grateful for Brandon's mom and dad who were willing to open their home to two almost complete strangers and feed them.  They're amazing.  That year, I also heard that they extended an invitation to all the single adults in their Ward who didn't have a place to go to their home for Thanksgiving dinner.  How wonderful is that!  I think that's a perfect example of their charity.  Brandon definitely learned how to serve with love from his parents. 

I'm thankful for this holiday so I can think of all that I'm thankful for.  So I want to give a big "Thanks!" to the following people:

• Everyone who've watched Kayla for us while we had to work or go on a date
• Craig Peterson and Phil Burnett for helping us get this wonderful home we now live in
• Mom who helped cover our tickets for going out to SC for her wedding
• Mike Graddy who is making my mother so happy and a lot less lonely
• Brandon's mom and dad for being so patient as they wait for opportunities to see their only grandchild (and for helping us improve our new home, you've done so much already)
• Katherine for hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year 
• Kayla for being so adorable even when she's sad
• Brandon for being the most amazing husband 

I could go on and on, but this blog post is getting long enough.  But I do have to add one more to the list: my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ, for creating this beautiful world that we live in; for giving us a Plan so we can live with Them and our loved ones again; for loving us even when we don't feel like we deserve it.  I Thank Them with all my heart.

So enough of my ranting and on to the pictures.  Clark, Lonnie, and MaKena stayed at our house for a few days, and I promised Mom pictures of the kids together.

Brandon wanted to show Clark our backyard, so they bundled up the kids and went out.  Can you see the family resemblance? :)

MaKena and Kayla

They look so different in sizes right now, but they're only 8 months apart.  As they get older I'm sure they'll become the best of friends (if we stay close enough to visit).

That face is so classically Graham.  She looks so much like Clark with those adorable ears!  And Kayla looks a lot like me.  I'm thinking the Graham genes are pretty dominant! More kids will tell! 

I think this is the closest we were able to get the kids together.  That's a good thing right now because they'll just hurt themselves otherwise. 

It was so much fun having them at our home to relax and play games.  We will be planning more of these as much as we can.  I love our family.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  Make sure to give thanks to those you're thankful for!

Coming Up-to-Date

I'm sorry I've been remiss in posting.  My last post was almost two months ago...I didn't realize it'd been that long.  But between family reunions, moving, vacations, and Kayla, things just get a little busy.  So I'm going to try to give a basic overview of what kind of life we've had in the last two months.  Get ready...set...Go!

July 

We started off the month with going to Clark and Lonnie's baby blessing of our new niece MaKena in Idaho Falls.  It was fun seeing them again and watching Kayla interact with her.  

I know Lonnie looks so sad in this picture, but it's only because MaKena was so sad; she was sympathizing.  This was the only picture I found from that trip.  We went out to eat on Saturday with all of the Graham family that was there.  It was a lot of fun.


Later that week we went down to St. George for the Hedquist Family Reunion to celebrate the 4th of July.  We started off swimming at Grandpa Ab's and Grandma Renee's pool.

Kayla loved being in the water and swimming with Daddy and Grandma.  She's a fish, just like her Mama.  It was nice being in the pool because I'm convinced St. George is one of the hottest places on earth.

This is the best picture we got of the Ab & Renee Hedquist family (minus uncle Jason because they hadn't gotten there yet).  It was so much fun to see everyone.   

This is everyone at the Golden Corral for dinner before we went to Tuacahn to see Aladdin.  So awesome!

  

This was Kayla's first attempt at eating her own strawberry.  It was very cute, but very messy.  Uncle Kris and Aunt Cathy was sitting across from us and they thought she was so cute!  And she just hammed it up for them. That's my child... :)

One of Kayla's favorite things to do at the condo was to climb up on the glass coffee table and sit/stand on it.  It made her higher up, which in her opinion is the best place to be.  The higher the better!  Would have almost given us a heart attack if she hadn't done it to us so many times before.

The last full day we were there, we went to the camping ground where Uncle Jason's family was staying.  We ate dutch oven dinner and dessert there, so yummy!  Kayla loved playing outside.  She likes getting dirty.  At one point she was shoving her hands in the dirt and pebbles, grabbing a handful and throwing it in the air.  When I got home and changed her diaper, she brought them with her as a souvenir. Silly girl.

This was the morning we left to go back home.  Mom went with Jessica to catch her flight the next morning.  So this was her saying goodbye to her grand-baby.  Kayla's wearing the outfit that her grandma gave her.  It's so Mom!  We had so much fun!  Thanks everyone who was there to make it so!



Later in July we had another family reunion to go to.  Thankfully, it was in the area.  It was for Brandon's side of the family.  And his mom got to come down for it! 

This is a 5 generation picture. So cool!  The reunion was just one day, and we had this picnic for dinner.  There was lots of food and music.  So good!

During the day, Grandma got to have Kayla all to herself.  Brandon, Amanda, and I went to SLC to watch the musical Wicked.  Brandon and I had seen it back in 2007, but this was Amanda's first time.  She had so much fun!  I'm so happy she liked it.  It's one of my favorites.

A week or so before Brandon's mom came into town, Kayla really started walking on her own.  She'd been able to take a few steps here and there, but she didn't get it down really well until about mid-July.  Her Grandma got quite the exercise following after her.  She's so cute learning to walk on her own.  She tries so hard to be Miss Independent.  But she'll still want to hold your hand for support.  I love her so much.


August

So far, I think August has been our busiest month, and it's not over yet!  The first weekend we moved from our apartment to our new house.  Unfortunately, we still don't own it, but we're getting close.  I'll make a separate post with more details and pictures on that later.  I hate packing everything up and moving.  It's why we haven't done it in the 5 years we've been married.  I'm glad we're in the house now, but getting there was so stressful!  And now getting unpacked is pretty crazy, too. Despite that, I love our new home.  There's so much room for Kayla to run around and play in.  She's not quite running yet, but she's getting there!

For Kayla's first birthday, we decided to drive to Ft. Collins, CO to celebrate it with his family.  That week was also Brandon's graduation.  He decided not to Walk because we were traveling, but congratulations to him for finally being done!  That Sunday at Mom and Dad's house, we had a family get together to celebrate all the graduates this year: Olivia from high school, Shannon for her Associates, Brandon for his Bachelor's, Amanda for her Bachelor's, and Kayla for her 1st Birthday.  Congratulations everyone!

We ate delicious food (no surprises there), opened presents, and played Quelf.  All in all, it was a very fun evening.

Grandma bought a whale pool for Kayla.  On the last picture, you can see where the "head" is spouting out water.  Kayla very much enjoyed it.  She was in the pool more often without her swimming suit than not...so there were a lot of saggy diapers. :)

We celebrated Kayla's birthday in stages and with different people.  Everyone wanted to celebrate with us, and that made us feel so happy.

This was her first cake.  Grandpa picked it out (this one was the cutest, he said), and Daddy tried to teach her how to blow out the candle. Cute!

 

Present time!  We're still teaching her to open them up, but she's getting there!

There was a stuffed lion inside!  The first thing she wanted to do was to taste it...or kiss it, depending on how you see the picture.  Either way, I think she liked it.

Presents from my mom.  Love the hat!  She also got a little purse and a tiger that wraps around her arm like it's hugging her.  She also got tons and tons of clothes, and most of those were dresses. Loved them!  I think dresses work the best for her because she can't really wear pants.  They're so big on her! And when they finally fit around the waist, they're too short! So, it doesn't really work for her.  Shorts, skirts, and dresses are the best!

I think the best part about the trip was that Kayla got to play with her grandparents.  She's their only grand-baby so far, so she gets all their attention, and she loves it.  Grandpa's such a tease!  It took her a while to warm up to him, but by the end she was smiling her cutest smile at him, and I think he just loved it. 

The trip was way too short, but we must go back to work.  And there was still a house for me to clean and prepare for the next party!  This time it was a joint party with Katherine and Phil's little girl, Amy.  Her and Kayla's birthdays are about a week apart, so we wanted to do one together.  We're hoping to make a tradition out of this while we're both still in the area.  So we invited our families over to celebrate with us.

And there are the little birthday girls! Kayla's wearing one of her birthday dresses, and being as cute as ever.  Amy was so quiet compared to the mayhem of the other children, it was really fun to watch her, too.

My old boss, Brad's, wife makes cakes as a small business at home.  She made this one for us.  I love it!  It was carrot with buttercream frosting.  She did an amazing job!  She was excited to try making it in the shape of a butterfly, and it turned out fantastic!  And yummy too!

The whole time they were eating, Amy kept trying to steal Kayla's cake! It was one of the funniest things I've seen!  But Kayla's didn't fuss about it too much.  She's a sharing girl.

Surprisingly, she didn't get too messy eating.  The frosting wasn't smeary enough for other people's tastes, but I liked it just fine.  She can still look cute and messy without being a complete disaster.  I like smaller messes to clean up.

So I know this has been a REALLY long post, but I wanted to share it all.  I had a hard time selecting the best-of-the-best pictures because there were so many cute ones!  So that's been our life the last couple months.  There's still lots to do and friends to play with.  Brandon's been busy making movies and resurrecting our yard.  We'll get there eventually. 

Thanks everyone for your love and presents to Kayla.  We love them all!  We love y'all!