A Happy Home is Filled with Love and Laughter: July 2010

Trip back to see the MISH

Beej & Chris

BJ, Kaylee and I- along with my family (mom, dad and little bro) are going back to my mission next friday!!! I am excited and a little nervous. For those of you that don't know. I served an LDS mission in Rapid City, South Dakota. Making a long story short...I had some pretty bad knee problems bringing me back from my mission a whole year early. I still have knee problems now. But I know how to take care of them and how to prevent them from getting really bad. I still to this day could not serve a full time mission with all the walking it requires and that is really hard to say. After I got back from my mission I served a service mission for about 6 months which helped a lot with the transition. It was really...REALLY hard coming home early. I felt like a failure and was in a lot of pain. When I think about it now- it brings me to tears still. Needless to say- going back to my mission brings back a lot of emotions. I am excited but it is a little overwhelming as well. ANYWAY enough of my emotions. :)

Here is our plan. And YES we are crazy taking a 5 month old on such a LOOONNNG road trip. Please pray for us :D

SOUTH DAKOTA VACATION:

Friday July 23rd
Head to MARTIN’S COVE 6 hours

MARTIN’S COVE ------ DAY’s INN HOTEL 4 hours

Saturday July 24th
7am: Go to Mt. Rushmore $10 fee for parking $0 for admission. Mt Rushmore opens at 8 am.
Bring Cash for Parking

Hotel to Mt. Rushmore: 30 minutes

10:30 am: Leave Mt. Rushmore and go to the Alpine 20 minutes

11am: LUNCH at the ALPINE. ONLY CASH or CHECK ACCEPTED--- Save room for Dessert 

12 ish: Leave the Alpine and the boys will go to WIND CAVE and the girls will go to JEWEL CAVE
46 minutes
1:30 pm: Candlelight Cave Tour at WIND CAVE.
Wind Cave:
$9.00 each for BJ & Dad
$4.50 for Nathan

Jewel Cave Discovery:
$4.00 each for Mom & Christie

4:00 pm: Take the BEAUTIFUL drive to Hot Springs, SD and see where I lived and take a walk around. Visit Sam and Dorothy? Tara?

6-7 ish: Have dinner with the Carrolls??
Sunday July 25th

FAMILY LEAVES TO IOWA EARLY!!! 11 hours 45 minutes
**** Recommend Stopping at Sioux Falls. It is about mid-point in the drive****

9:00 am Pack up and head to church

10:00 am Church
2:00 pm Leave for Brookings, SD Super 8 Motel ----7 hours

Monday July 26th
9:00 am: Leave for Fargo, ND Super 8 Motel 3 hours
12:00 pm: Eat Lunch at Space Aliens

** Visit People from Mission, Go to old Apartment**

Tuesday July 27th
8:00 am: Leave for Mall of America 4 hours
4:00 pm: Leave for Cedar Rapids, IA Marriott 4 hours 20 mins Marriott:

Wednesday July 28th
Watch Dad pitch and kick booty!!!!!!
12:00 pm??: Leave for Nauvoo, IL 2 hours

Thursday July 29th
Watch Nate

Friday July 30th
Watch Nate

Saturday July 31st
8:00 am: Leave for Ogallala, NE 9 hour 20 mins
Visit Investigatore in Ogallala

Sunday August 1st 9 hours
Head Home

It is going to be a very busy fun filled vacation!!!

Walmart = Frustration

Beej & Chris

I am really disliking Walmart at the moment. I went to Walmart in Centerville yesterday to get a few random things for our upcoming vacations and left frustrated. I used to go to Walmart for everything. Lately we have been going to Shopko and Target because of gift cards and different coupon deals. So it had been awhile since I had needed to go to Walmart.

Things I dislike about Walmart:
- It is a HUGE store therefore the parking lot is HUGE- so it takes forever to find a parking spot and run in and walk all the way to the back of the store to get milk or something "quick and easy".
- The sales associates are not always the kindest. I know you get this in every store but in my one trip I had a lot of onry workers. Example- I went to buy a present for my dad. It was a season of Everybody Loves Raymond on dvd. I couldn't find it so I asked the sales associate if he had any. He said no. I then asked him if he could look online and see if there was a store close by that I could go to that would have them. And he said, "nope. There aren't any stores in Utah that have them." That's a pretty big statement. I said, "You got online today..TODAY..somebody came in to the store today and asked you for this movie and you got online and checked all the stores in Utah and not a single one of them had them in the store." ok well I didn't say all that but I wanted to. He then said, "I just know". Wow I am glad he "just knows".
- Having to wait at the photo center or the fishing checkout for 20-30 minutes until you can find somebody to help.
- Walmart doesn't have any hand sanitizer (in Centerville) or wipes to clean off the shopping carts. This is an added extra- but when you have a baby that eats EVERYTHING she see's it becomes more of a need.
- Walmart has 15-17 checkout lines and only 4 are open!
- Walmart has everything you can think to have and for the cheapest price out there making all the above even more annoying. They are making mega $$$$. Let's fix some of these problems please.

Ok I am done complaining. Maybe I just had a good experience at Target and Shopko the other day making this seem all that worse. But both stores had people standing at the checkout center's waiting for someone to come checkout. I was asked at both locations by several people if I needed any help finding something. They both have a button that you can push at the varies different department stores that you can push alarming the nearest sales associate so come and help you. AND they both have hand sanitizer wipes. :)

The End.

Dad?

Beej & Chris

After I turned the camera off. I left her in her playpen and she just kept playing for another 5 minutes or so. She just wanted to play on her own!
When Kaylee is sad. Screaming in her crib it sounds like she is saying "Mum".

I told BJ. Sure. Kaylee says my name when she is screaming and your name when she is playing!

Quick...or not so quick...RECAP

Beej & Chris

So I have got behind on all the fun things Kaylee has done and we have done as a family so here is my recap in no particular order.

We celebrated the 4th of July pretty much all weekend. On the 3rd we went up to Malad, Idaho to see the parade and go to the park for the annual races.

My brother Nate and my nephew Carson

It was FREEZING cold at the parade.

The whole crew minus my sister Angela.

The Annual Leap Frog Competition. BJ, Johnathon (brother) and a cousin competed last year and won the trophy. They had to bring the trophy back and compete for the title again.

Look at these leap frog skills!

They BLEW the competition out of the water err.. the grass....they won!

They have races for all ages starting with the crawlers. As soon as Kaylee starts walking we are going to train her so she can win the silver dollar next year!! It's on!

There was a hypnotist at the park. I attempted to get hypnotized but it didn't work. I guess I didn't really want it.

BJ competed in the pie eating contest. See the pig trophy on the left of him. That's what it's all about baby! jk It costs $10 to enter with a total of 10 contestants and winner wins all the entry fee's adding up to be $100. My dad entered BJ and my brother Johnathon (on the right) and told them they could keep the $90 and give him the $10 back for entering.

BJ KICKED booty

The judges kept looking at him and the guy at the far left. It was SOOO close. But the guy on the far left beat BJ by a few bites. He came and gave BJ $20 since they were so close. BJ gave his $10 back to my dad and the $10 he owed me. ha ha

The 4th my nephew Logan was blessed. We had a bbq and did some fireworks at my brother's house. Kaylee just stared at them.

We then went to Cherry Hill at the 5th. My mom took a ton of pictures so I will post more later!

This is at the parade in Layton. Kaylee didn't love the sirens.

Kaylee LOVES to watch baby Einstein. I don't put it in very often but when I need to get a few things done then I will put in the movie and she will be content until it is over.

Look it how much fun she is having.

Uh oh- she was caught having fun!

My mom snuggling with Kaylee at her work.

This is Kaylee's friend Brinlee.

Kaylee loves to play with her feet

She also LOVES this toy!!!

I went out and bought a little kid pool from walmart and took Kaylee out a few weeks ago. It took her awhile to get used to it. But she is liking the water more and more.

She loved to play with her toys in the water

She is thinking about it. "umm..that looks like fun mom. But can't you just bring it to me instead of put me in that cold wet stuff?"

Kaylee has been enjoying her bath time more and more lately. But she is funny. She always pushes her feet to the very end of the tub to make sure she doesn't fall in. Lol Silly girl.

At 4 months we started Kaylee on rice cereal. We did it way too thin at first so she would just get frustrated. She does SOO much better now that I thicken it up more. She loves it!

Yummy!

We decided to try some Peaches the next week. She didn't like it at first but started to get used to it. I then heard that I should give her vegetables first- before fruit or she will have a hard time taking vegetables. So....next time it will be vegetables.

"Here dad. I will help you!"

We got free Bee's tickets from the Utah Jazz. BJ and I aren't normally big baseball fans. But I really enjoy going to these Bee's games. We have stayed for the whole game though. lol They can go pretty long sometimes. We sat in the grassy area at first but then found some seats close to the field at the end of the game. The view from these seats were much better than the grass!

1st attempt at making a bow

Beej & Chris

I have heard making bows are really easy so I decided to make my first attempt at a 4th of July bow. Here is how I did it...

Step 1: Buy the Supplies

5/16 " ribbon

1/4 " wooden dowels

small binder clips or clothes pin

hair clip

glue gun

strong thread

Step 2: Wrap

Use the binder or clothes pin to secure the ribbon to the wooden dowel and then wrap the dowel with ribbon.

Step 3: Cook

Cook wooden dowels for 2o minutes at 250 degrees in the oven

ha ha ha- but don't make the stupid mistake I did and use PLASTIC clothes pins. I was trying to hurry and finish while Kaylee was taking a nap and wasn't thinking. LOL

Step 4: Unwrap

Unwrap the ribbon after it has cooled completely