Comparisons

I keep getting asked if Tate looks like my other kids did when they were babies. I decided to just post some pics and let everyone decide for themselves.

Here's Tate at 5 weeks. This is one of the first smiles we were able to get a picture of.

This is Caden at about 5 or 6 weeks.

And here's Ky at about the same age.

More Baby Pics

I thought since the baby is now a week old, and looks totally different, I'd post a couple more pics. Brent didn't add many details to the last post because, well, there wasn't much to add. We went in super early, they prepped me, the doctors took the baby out, and that was it. I'm starting to feel a little like my former self, with a few added aches and pains, but not too bad. I'm starting to get nervous for when Brent goes back to work and leaves me with all three kids by myself.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we did pick a name. Tate Bruce Haslem.

Baby Pictures

Well he doesn't have a name yet but here are some pictures fresh from the birth. Better pictures to follow stay tuned.

Born: 11/24/2009 8:00AM
Weight: 8lbs 1oz
Length: 20" (seems funny to say length not height, kind of like I'm describing a fish I caught)


Names we are contemplating (NOT in order of preference):
Mason (Brent)
Dylan (Brent)
Carter (Brent)
Gavin (Both)
Tate (Holly)

Fall/Halloween

Our fall has been mostly full of picking and trying to get rid of apples. We did get out a few times. We took the kids to the American West Heritage Center. I think we actually picked one of the coldest days to go but the kids didn't seem to mind.
I'm pretty sure this is the first time Caden has riden a horse. He just kept saying "Ye-haw" over and over again.

There was a pirate ship made out of Straw bales. I think this might have been the highlight for Caden. His FAVORITE thing to play is pirates. We had a hard time getting him to leave.

Kyla liked the big slide, but I really just posted this pic because Brent's face made me laugh. That's the perkes of being the one incharge of the blog.

Only Kyla really liked jumping into the pile of straw, Caden kind of wussed out on this one.

There was a little train that went around in a circle about 25 yards acrossed, and Caden loved it.

And you can't visit the AWHC without a visit to the petting area.

We were actually really big slackers when it came to taking pictures on Halloween. This is the kids playing games at my mom's annual Halloween Party.

Here's the crew we went trick or treating with. There's Kyla the Snow Fairy, Megan the witch, Caden the Pirate, and Elysa as Little Red Riding Hood. I think Megan and Elysa could have trick or treated all night long. Just the amount we did almost sent me into labor (not really but it felt like it).

5, really!?

I, like most parents, can never believe how big my kids are getting. On thursday Kyla had her 5th birthday. It was just yesterday that she looked like this...

She had a great time at her party. She was so excited to have her friends over and they all played so well together. Here are a couple of pics from her party. You might notice there are no pictures of her actually opening her presents. That's because I was distracted for two minutes and when I came back, all the presents were open.

I let them decorate their own cupcakes. Doesn't that look disgusting.
I set up a treasure hunt for them. At the end they were all still looking for clues, but Kylee figured out.
This is how Caden looked several times that day. I tried to include him in everything but he still felt jipped.

Finally....

So I'm finally updating my blog. We've had so much to do lately that updating the blog hasn't even really crossed my mind. The only reason I feel up to it today is that Caden actually slept through the night last night (this has only happened one or two other times since we've moved). Okay, so we moved into Brent's parents house three weeks ago. As hard as it is just to move, it is infinitely harder to try and move into a house that is already furnished with everything. Two of the rooms in the basement are just chuck full of all of our stuff. Once we had all of our stuff put away we had to focus on yard stuff. Brent's been trying to make sure we don't do any irreparable damage to the orchard (for which there might not be forgiveness). I've also been busy with canning. I've canned peaches and raspberry jam this week, I need to can some salsa, and probably next week I'll do pears.


The move has been a little hard on both kids. Like I mention earlier, Caden has not really slept through the night since we moved. Kyla is having friend withdrawals. Before she had her friend Kylee right next door and could play from sunrise to sunset. I've set up a few playdates but it's definately a lot less playing than she's used to. The other day she asked me who she could play with and I told her Caden; she rolled her eyes and walked away. Lucky for her preschool starts next week, hopefully that will help.

Oh yeah and the pregnancy is going smoothly. Everyone tells me I don't look that big but my back tells me otherwise. We did find out that it's a boy, and as far as I can tell, he's pretty active. We don't have a name picked out yet, we always have issues with finding one we both like.

Hopefully one of these days I can get back on a better blogging schedule and start posting more exciting things.

Oregon

Here's our trip to Oregon with my family.
This day we went for a walk a long a beautiful beach. Everyone was freezing, but since I feel about 10 degree warmer than everyone else, I thought it was okay.

Here we are clamming. It was actually a lot funner than I thought it was going to be. I think Caden had the most fun.

Raspberries for Caden

Yesterday I was picking raspberries with Caden and it reminded so much of the book, Blueberries for Sal, that I had to document it. He had his little bucket and would put a couple in, then pick a couple and eat them, then eat the ones that were in his bucket. He even had the messy hair and all.

Yes, I am alive

I know, I know it's been forever since I last posted. We've actually had a lot to post about, I just haven't felt that great for the last 5 or 6 weeks. Don't worry I'm feeling much now and will probably feel quite a bit better around the end of November ;).

Since my last post we went to Hogle Zoo with some of my nieces and nephew.

We had a great easter with several easter egg hunts. One with little kids.

One with slightly bigger kids. This last week we spent in Cali celebrating Brent finishing his masters degree from USC.

We also went to the beach, Disneyland and Seaworld.

I actually think their favorite part was the cotton candy.

Ward Ski Party

Friday night our ward had a ski party up at the Beav. Kyla didn't really get the concept of the snow plow but she had a lot of fun.

Cutest thing ever!

I just wanted to give a shout out for my sister-in-law Christie's new photography business. She took pictures of Ky yesterday and they turned out so cute. For any of you in norther Utah looking to have photos taken, check out her website: http://www.christieheywoodphotography.com/

Finding Joy

So, last Saturday I went to the best women's conference. It was for just the two North Logan stakes, Ardeth Kapp was the main speaker and after there were side classes with varying subjects. I went to the class "Finding joy as a young mother." I went to this class because a)I am a young mother, and b) my neighbor, Christie, was one of the speaker and she is hilarious so I was hoping for good laugh (instead she almost made me cry). Anyway, I saw that she had posted her talk on her blog and just wanted to share it.

http://bellyacrefarm.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-finding-joy-as-young-mother-talk.html

You should all totally go read it, she's awesome. Thanks Christie.

We were asked at one point what we thought we would miss once our kids were grown. I wanted to post what I will miss.

The Big 2!!!

How slow am I? Caden's birthday was last Saturday and I'm just now getting to it. Brent's grandma summed it up best when she said "Caden turned 2 a long time ago." That's Caden, everything you think of when you think of a 2 year old. He climbs on everything, he gets into everything, and he breaks a lot of things. He's also very happy, cute, and can be very sweet and cuddly when he feels like it. I think he had a pretty good birthday. My sister and her husband took him to Pet Smart for his birthday (that's pretty much like the zoo for Caden). Now every time some asks how old he is he says "puppies". I guess somehow he associates how old he is with going to see puppies, oh well. That night we just had a little party at Brent's parent’s house. Since it was his birthday we let him have just plain whip cream, which is one of his favorite things.

My Mom

I just wanted to share the best part about living next to my mom. I was just cruisin' the internet trying to figure out what to have for dinner (yes it's 4 o'clock, I'm slacking today); when my mom calls and says she's made way too much food for her and my dad and would I like to have the extra. HECK YA!!!! This usually happens about once a week and it's so great to not have to think of anything to make or have dishes to clean (maybe I should go clean her dishes for making me dinner....hhmmm).

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I'm just freezing and would like to go back to some place warm.

It's all worth it - kind of

So last night we're eating sweet and sour chicken for dinner and Kyla's turns to me and says, "Good job on making good food Mom." It was so nice, especially since she usually she tells me that the food is making her tummy hurt. Of course after she ate the first little helping she asked if she could just have rice. I also wanted to share one of the stark differences in my children. On monday we made cookies for are fhe treat. Brent gave both of the kids some cookie dough to eat while the cookies were baking.

Kyla's face, neat and clean.


And Caden, well, you can see what kind of an eater is. This is how he eats everything. Most of his food usually ends up on his face, shirt, pants, and head. Lately he's started running away while I try to get his pajamas on. He'll run around the house saying "natie" (nakie). Normally he hates being naked, unless he's in water. I was going to post a cute picture of how happy he was being naked (no sensative parts were shown) but decided against it; I think Brent would have given me a hard time.

Hawaiian Snow

We were so homesick yesterday that we decided to go find the only snow in thousands of miles. So up to the top of Mauna Kea we went. Actually we went up to see all the massive telescopes they have up there.
This is the telescope that we went into. It was so funny, all the hawaiian were bringing their trucks up the mountain and filling the bed with snow. Then hauling the snow down the mountain.

Snorkeling

Here's a video that Brent took while snorkeling. It's a little shakey. I guess it's hard to swim and take video at the same time.

Aloha!

Brent and I have been kickin' it in Hawaii since tuesday night. Wednesday we drove to three green sand beaches. Two of which were ridiculusly hard to get to. Honestly, I'm still surprised that we didn't do any damage to the jeep we rented. The one that was easier to get to was by far my favorite. Although the picture didin't really capture it, the sand really was green.

Yesterday we drove to the other side of the island, which is so cool because it's like a rainforest over there. We also went to volcano national park. We decided to hike through the crater of Kileau Iki in the late afternoon. Well as it turned out we decided to start hiking a little to late and it started getting dark long before the were even close to being done. We had a head lamp, but it happened to be in the camel back that we decided not to take.

Above the Crater.

In the crater.

This is how dark it was when we finally climbed out of the crater. I know, we're dumb. Today we're going to take it easy. Find a nice beach and just sit.
I just had to add this last picture. This is my blogging atmosphere at the moment. Life is hard.