October 17th A Day to Look Forward too!

Warren is excited to have a little brother. He talks to him and gives him kisses every day. He shakes his head back and forth and says, "Baby, Baby," in a tender little voice. He'll then lift up his shirt and pat his tummy and say the same thing. Today he saw a picture of the ultra sound and ran to Kyle in the other room to show him the picture of the baby. He was so excited. We are very happy too. We are grateful for Warren and the laughter and joy that he brings into our lives and for this precious little boy on the way too.

Softball 2011

I was able to find a men's softball team for Kyle to play on during BYU's Spring Semester.  I overheard a friend in our ward mention that he was playing and so I called him to see if Kyle would be able to play on their team.  We have usually had a ward team but weren't able to get one this year.  The team had a spot for him.  The team was also able to pick up another schedule too so double the games.  Last week there were 4 games, 3 of them were played in the rain.

The team is really quite unique that he plays on.  Half are deaf.  One of his teammates along with being deaf is blind in one eye.  It has been a wonderful learning experience of how to signal, call out, for fly balls and just to communicate in general.  This has been Kyle's favorite season of playing softball.

The teams record in the regular season is best put this way 0 wins and the losses whose counting.  The win column is filled with the reasons why I like intramurals, friendships, fun, and being active.

Tournament play began tonight.  Warren and I went a were able to watch, I guess I should say catch small glimpses, of the game.  Warren, of course, likes to explore, thinks that he deserves a turn to bat, likes to hang the bats on the net on the backstop, play with the balls and gloves, look for the airplanes in the sky, and hug his dad while he is waiting to bat.

If they won tonight they would play a second game.  They WON the first game by forfeit!  Warren and I arrived after they had began the second game.  We had a nice walk over to the fields seeing all the buses, motorcycles, vans, bikes, and finding the "W" on a few signs for Warren.  We are so glad that we went.  I was able to see the team play really well today.  The players bats were hot and they were also blessed a couple of times where the defenders appeared to have holes in their gloves.  Kyle had 3 really great hits that we were able to see.  A double was hit to left field near the left foul line, a double to center, and one to go down in history... a HOMERUN to left center, it almost made it to the parking lot (good thing it didn't or it would have been a double) it was a beautiful hit!!!  He still can't believe he hit it that far.  Their run in the tournament will continue, yeah for more time to develop friendships, more fun on the fields, and more time being active. 

Easter

On Saturday we had fun having practice Easter egg hunts with Warren at our house.  Kyle did a great job of training him, while I was cooking.  Later that night we dyed eggs together.  I am sure glad that there were 2 of us to help Warren.

We had a fun time together.  Sunday we enjoyed spending time with Kyle's family for an Easter dinner.  

Most of all at this time we are grateful to the Savior.  President Monson read some words written by Emily Harris in his closing address of the April 2011 conference that I'll share with you.

The linen which once held Him is empty.

It lies there,

Fresh and white and clean.

The door stands opened.

The stone is rolled away,

And I can almost hear the angels singing His praises.

Linen cannot hold Him.

Stone cannot hold Him.

The words echo through the empty limestone chamber,

“He is not here.”

The linen which once held Him is now empty.

It lies there,

Fresh and white and clean

And oh, hallelujah, it is empty. ¹

Full talk click here.

Trip to Vegas

When I was talking with my parents one night they informed me that they were going to Vegas to spend time with my brother down there.  I invited myself and Warren so Kyle could work on school.  The great thing was that school was ending and Kyle said that he would be able to come too.  A mini family vacation.... This turned into a middle child family reunion.

We arrived Thursday evening, where we stayed at my brother John's house.

Friday, we went to the hotel where my other brother, Sam, and his family had stayed and we played at the pool.  Warren started to like the water it was great!  He had a fun time playing with his cousins.  Kyle stayed back at the house and worked on his application to work as an ESL teacher at Snow College.

Saturday, we went to watch my brother in the triathlon.  When we arrived at Lake Mead we saw him pedaling towards us and then we saw him run across the finish line.  It was fun to watch.  I have always been on the participating side of events and found it rewarding to see all of those who were competing finish and think of all the hard work and training that they put in prior to the event.  We then headed down towards the lake to play.

Later on that day Julie, Sam's wife brought a fun Easter craft for the kids to do.  Decorating foam eggs and paper wreaths with chicks, eggs, bunnies, etc...

Sunday, went to church and then after that and lunch we headed back to Utah.  We really enjoyed our trip and our looking forward to our family reunion this summer.  We are excited to meet our newest little nephew that will be coming soon.

April 11th

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary married over a three week time period.  On the 11th, for FHE we talked about the temple and looked through our pictures of our wedding day.  We found out my parents were going down to Las Vegas so we decided to go too, I'll write more on that later.  On the 29th we went and did sealings at the temple and on the 30th Kyle surprised me with 12 dozen roses and then we went to dinner.  Thanks to Stephanie (Kyle's sister) and the Hansen's (we won their awesome baby sitting services from a ward auction) who watched Warren.  He had a wonderful time both days.  Thanks to our wonderful mother who gave us a gift card to Applebee's for Christmas too.

New Orleans

We went to New Orleans a few weeks ago for a TESOL conference that Kyle was going to.  Warren and I came along for the ride. Warren loved his plane ride... the light buttons, the air conditioning, opening and shutting the window, the hearts on the back of the chairs, putting the tray tables up and down, the treats, trying some soda "Sick!" but a second later "More!", climbing on mom and dad etc.  Mom and Dad were busy on the entertaining side of things and no deep naps for us.  The passengers who sat next to us were really kind to him and some who were near entertained him with a smile or two.

On our first day, while Kyle went to the conference Warren and I went to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, here are a few photos of us there.

Warren enjoyed seeing the fish and the large sharks that they have in the entrance.  I would have to say his favorite part of the trip was going down the slide and climbing up the net.

 Later when Kyle came home we went for a walk around New Orleans and ate at Dragos they are known for their oysters but we decided not to try them.  The food that we ate was really good.  We had some delicious fresh fruit, A Shrimp Po' Boy, and Shrimp Pasta.

Above Warren is putting pepper on his saltine crackers, yum.

Dragos is located in the Hilton and this is what Warren and Kyle found on our way back to our hotel so we pretended to play for a little bit.

 
The next day of the conference, St. Patrick's Day, Warren and I went to the Louisiana Children's Museum.  We had SO much fun!  I loved playing with him and watching him discover.  He loved pretending to be a fireman and driving the truck, playing in the bubble blowing/making area, climbing the stairs, playing in the toddler area, and so much more.  Some day we'll need to go to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum in Salt Lake.  I only have two pictures from there because we were having so much fun together.

When Kyle came home from the conference we went to Mother's Restaurant, one that our taxi driver recommended that we should go too.  After we ate we went to go find the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  Which took us to the French Quarter.  That was a fun experience.  St. Patty's Day, attire everywhere.  Teaching elementary school I thought I saw kids decked all out in green... Wow, this took the cake it was so fun to see so many people adults included go ALL out.  

We decided not to stay to watch the parade because by the time it got to us it would have been late and so we decided to take a nice walk on the River Walk.  It was beautiful.  We loved watching the boats go by. 

When we got to our hotel we watched March Madness, BYU vs. Wofford a great way to end a great day.

Before we drove off to Alabama, Warren and I took one last walk on the River Walk and found a Jester that Warren really liked that Kyle and he discovered the first day we were there.  I forgot to mention that while we were in New Orleans he saw a train and each time we would go out he would asked to go see the choo-choo. He also wanted to find all the stairs.  We had a great time!

One last story(the short version)... The room that we had had 2 doubles.  I walked into the room and saw all of the fluffy down pillows on the bed and the down comforter and was so excited! I wanted to have one of the beds all to myself and enjoy sinking into a deep slumber.  But....the hotel that we were staying in had a crib but the wheel was broken and was not available... Because Kyle had the conference and we wanted him to be well rested..... Warren and I shared the "big bed" as he called it, I was worried that he would fall off the bed because he rolls everywhere while he is sleeping.  I was grateful that Kyle took Warren out the first morning that we were there so I could catch up on some missed sleep.  It wasn't the best sleep but it was fun to be by our favorite little man.  Warren was very possessive of our bed.  One day Kyle was sitting on it and in his own little way "Dad, no!" I think he tried to push him or patted the bed that Kyle had slept on meaning Dad you sit here.  Later when we went to my brother's house he wanted to sleep in the "big bed" and not the pack and play.

Trip to Alabama

My sister-in-law Jen posted some great pictures and about our trip to Alabama she gave me permission to use her post.  I thought she did a great job of capturing the moment so here it is...

Ila (Gordon's Sister), Kyle, and Warren came and visited us for the weekend. We had a wonderful time with them. Gordon picked them up from New Orleans on Friday. Friday night we took them to the neighborhood pool. It was the first time back at the pool this season and the water was freezing. The boys didn't seem to notice and had a blast making water balloons and playing in the water.

Saturday we went to Pensacola and enjoyed the gorgeous emerald blue water and the perfect sugar sand beach. It took us a while to even get to the beach since MANY others had the same idea. Traffic in Pensacola was terrible.


This was Warren's first time at the beach and Kyle's 3rd time. We enjoyed the waves, the sand, and just being together. For dinner we ate at our favorite restaurant called Flounders. Kyle and Ila enjoyed trying the seafood dishes while on their trip. Flounders has a great variety of delicious seafood. I wasn't a seafood lover until I went to Flounders and tried their Mahi Mahi. It is so delicious. After Flounders, we walked around the pier and enjoyed some ice cream while watching the BYU game.

Sunday we enjoyed a lovely day at church together. I was able to attend RS with Ila. I hadn't attended RS in years since being called into primary and nursery. Later that evening we enjoyed a walk together around the neighborhood. They also enjoyed picking out some of their favorite Mardi Gras throws from our stash.Monday we went to Biloxi and went to the beach there. We were quickly reminded that the beach is NOT the place to go while in Biloxi. Pensacola is so much nicer because the water is turquoise and the sand is clean where Biloxi the water is murky brown and the sand is littered with trash. We decided to go have a picnic at a park there. This was much more enjoyable. Gordon then took Kyle, Ila, and Warren on to the New Orleans airport.

We were all so sad to see them go. We had so much fun visiting with them. Warren and Bryson played so well together. Warren is a very good talker and is almost 2. I loved when he reminded Bryson to "share" his toys with him. One time he wanted my cell phone to play with and he said "Jen share." It was so cute.

Thanks Jen for the post:)