Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad and his twin sister Vickie's birthdays. I just wanted to tell them Happy Birthday! My Dad does a lot for us, and we love and appreciate him, and his sister is such a special lady. We don't spend much time with either of them and miss them when we don't see them. Kiana likes to go to the grandpa's house with the big dogs!

This is a new face Maile makes while she breathes in and out really hard. I don't know what it is supposed to mean; is she mad, is she playing, does it tickle? I don't know, but it sure is funny.
This is a picture of Kiana and her friend Kelty in their dress-up clothes, and with their all-important princess cell phones. It's all about the accessories. These two are quite funny and are not ever sure if they are friends or not!

Kianaisms

Kiana is the funniest girl, but I have a hard time rememebering all that she does. This one was hard to forget. The other night we went to my parents for dinner. We pulled up in their yard, and she said, "Nana stay, you go mommy." I told her I was coming in too. She said, "No mommy go away, I stay myself and grandpa and grandma's and sleep over. I let her out of the car and went around to get Maile. She ran into the house and tried to lock me out. When I got in, she threw herself on the floor and threw a tantrum for a good 10 mins. until g-ma could calm her down. I feel loved.

She has a new CD of songs for the car. I am really getting sick of them, so I turned on my music. She threw such a fit. When I turned her music back on, she said, "Now that is pretty songs mommy, thank you."

This is a picture of her glaring at her dad, I don't remember why, but it was pretty funny.

She is getting so BIG. She started going to primary, sunbeams, a couple of weeks ago. She brings home a paper about what they learned about and then we talk about it, like her body is like Heavenly Father's body and he created this world for us. We have been reading the Book of Mormon childrens reader on Sundays too. I don't know if it is sinking in, but I sure am learning a lot. I am so greatful that Heavenly Father blessed me with these special daughters and is allowing me to try and teach them!

6 month stats

Since Maile was sick for her 6 month appt., we had to go back and get shots. Boy, she was not a happy girl, which is very rare for her.

She weighed 16 pounds, 3.5 ounces -50%

She was 26 and 1/4 long-75%

Her head was 17 inches-75%

She is feeling so much better and back to her happy self, now if I could just get her to sleep through the night, we'd all be doing better.

Ready, Set, Go

Maile decided that she wanted to get a move on last week! Here are some pictures of her trying. She hasn't quite mastered the crawling yet, but she is so close and probably will soon.

Here are some pictures of our good friends. They are moving soon, and we will miss hanging out. We have spent so much time together, they even lived with us for a second. We used to have FHE every week, and our girls are the same age and love to play together.

It was also my nephews b-day last week and he adores Maile

My Sweetheart!

Where we met: Steven and I went to high school together. We knew of each other, but not much more than that. We were 19, hanging out at a Halloween party. We had the same friends, and I think both kind of interested. After that we kind of just hung out and were at the same place at the same time. Once he was visiting a friend in an upstairs apartment, I was below him on the basement apartment visiting my sister, and I started banging on the ceiling with a broom so that he would come down and talk to me.

We went on our first date: Our actual first date was a Kurt Bestor concert and Olive Garden. He had never really dated and so he didn't know how to act. He wasn't sure if he should order for me or not, hold my hand, or not...he was scared and it was funny!

How long we dated before we got married? Forever. We dated for 1 and 1/2 before our missions, wrote continually (probably more then to our parents) for two years of our missions, and then 1 year after our missions. A little over 4 years.

How long have we been married: A little over 5 years.

What is my favorite feature about him: He can always make me feel good about myself, I am always laughing with him, and he is the best Dad!

What's my favorite quality about him: his unconditional love, and that he is quick to forgive. He is always trying hard to do better.

What's his nickname for me: He makes up so many and they are never the same. They usually don't even make sense, but when he is being normal just honey or Kim. I can't even think of a crazy one, but believe me, they are too silly.

His favorite color: Green

His favorite sport: tennis and golf

Who said the L word first: He did, but only because I was mad at him. He was tryng to be funny, and so he was putting me down....I wasn't talking to him, so he pulled me aside, told me how sorry he was and that he loved me.

First kiss, where and when: Our friends tried to get us to do it under a mistletoe, but no way, not for a first kiss in front of everyone. The next day, he fixed the head light on my car, and felt he deserved a reward. I drove him home, he turned to me, gave me a quick peck, and dashed into the house. I sat their dumbfounded, surprised that was all there was to it for him. I don't think he even said goodbye.

Favorite couple thing to do: Watch movies and play board games. I love to sit and listen to him play the guitar.

His hidden talent: He plays the guitar, loves to look up recipes and try them out (they usually tuen out pretty good), and learning to do fix ups around the house. He got a book from home depot and put up our ceiling fans by himself. I was so proud. He can womp you on and game system and has found all 100 pokemon =)

His favorite music: weezer for sure...but any punk rock

What I admire most about him: his love for me and the kids. I love when he uses his priesthood and to listen to his prayers. He works so hard for us and keeps pursuing school, even when it has taken so long.

His favorite past times: Mostly hanging out with friends and Mt. Dew, hanging out in the canyons, skipping school. He loves to spend a day watching Star Wars and watched Aladdin every day for a whole summer.

Will he read this: Most likely not.

This was a lot of fun, and it helped me to appreciate my husband more. Give it a try...so I tag everyone =) Thanks Liz!!

Baby Maile

I sweet Baby Maile is now 6 months old, I can't believe it. She sure gave me a scare this week. We all had a cold last week, but finally on Sunday Maile seemed to be getting over it. She was laughing and happy and her normal self. I layed her down that night, and when she woke up to nurse, she was not breathing well at all. She just kept coughing and was so horse. There were a couple times where she would just stop breathing. I almost took her to the ER, but after I sat her up and calmed her down, she seemed a little better. I ended up staying up all night with her in the rocking chair. That morning she acted a lot better, but it has been hit or miss all week. I was supposed to have Maile's 6 month appointment, but with her being sick, we took care of that instead. She has croup for which they put her on steroids, and an earinfection, and she has a yeast infection. Poor girl, yet she is still so happy, our Smiley Maile. We also had to get her a humidifier and she sits in the room when we take showers to breathe in the moist air. She is finally doing so much better, but I am still nervous to lay her flat down.

Maile is amazing. I am always at how much further ahead she is then when Kiana was this age. She sits up by herself, and is learning to crawl this week. She gets on her arms, does a pushup by holding herself with just her tippy-toes, and then drops to her knees and rocks. I don't think I am ready for her to crawl. She is finally doing well eating food. She loves sweet potatos carrots and rice cereal with applesauce. Last night she tried bananas for the first time. During Christmas she started saying her first word, Da-Da, and she loves to say it while shaking her head back and forth. She loves to feel things. While I feed her, she rubs her hand back and forth on my clothes. She loves toys and laughs and laughs when you play peek-a-boo. Her favorite person is her sister Kiana, and when she is crying Kiana likes to sing to her or make faces or noises, and then she turns to you and says, "She's not crying anymore." She loves to be the big sister/helper. Maile is now 16 pounds. That isn't so big, considering how big she was when she was born. The doctor didn't really do all her stats because we were worried about how sick she was, so I will post them later.

I just love to sit and hold my girls. It seems they are growing too fast. I love being a mom and I am so blessed to have these beautiful girls in my life. They bring me such joy. Each day seems to fly by, and I reflect on the day wondering if I spent enough time with them. These days won't last forever, and I just want to hold them close.

Vegas Baby!!

Our Christmas was spent a little differently this year. We have some special friends that were renewing their vows for their 5th wedding anniversary and they invited to come to Las Vegas with them. We had decided to leave Christmas afternoon, after the kids got their Christmas from us and Santa and we had a little time with family, the weather had a different thing in mind. With a huge storm coming on Christmas, we had to head out early. Thank goodness that Santa is so accomidating. He came early on Christmas Eve morning. We threw together packing for us and the girls, dropped Kiana off at my parents, and drove 6 hours to Vegas. Not bad with a nursing baby. Maile was so good, she just slept the whole time. It was a very different Christmas. Vegas is Vegas, the city that never sleeps of celebrates holidays. We just didn't feel too Christmasy. The hardest part was not being with family for the holidays. Usually our holidays are so filled with family, and we didn't see many this year. We really missed everyone, but Kiana seemed to love G-ma and G-pa's and was happy to see us when we got home, but still wanted to stay with her grandparents. She played with cousins and was spoiled rotten.

We stayed in some pretty nice hotels and is was s nice long drive to just talk. Steve and I hardly ever get a moment like that. With it being our 5th anniversary a couple of weeks ago, it was nice just to spend time together. With Maile nursing, she came along. Vegas is hard with a baby, and the first night she had some problems breathing because of all the smoke in the casinos and buffets where we ate. After the first night, she wasn't bad, except all of our sleeping schedule was a little off.

Here is our awesome from the Stratisfere. Steve thought it was sooo cool, he had to take a picture.

After the first night, we went to the Las Vegas Hilton...much nicer view, and rooms.

Day view....

Night view....

What felt the most Christmasy was the Bellagio. They had their fountains set to Christmas music, and the lobby was pretty neat.





Here are our good friends, the Wrights. Obviously it was their wedding renewal!
And our cute family, minus Kiana...

These girls were so funny, they were litterally fighting over Maile and couldn't get enough of her. Also, Tom's little sister is a good friend of mine from high school, and we were lucky enough to be able to hang out with her and her husband and catch up and talk of old times. They are a really cute family.

It turned out to be a nice get away. We were lucky that Steve had off and we could just get up and go. We got awesome rates too and didn't end up being too expensive. It was mine and Steve's first time trying to gamble (just the penny slots). We lost $10, but made $12. Not too bad. Steve wanted me to be able to play with him, kind of hard with a baby, so he and Tom enjoyed the night life, eating, playing, and music. If we do it again, maybe we'll have to wait to not have a newborn and then once again we'll beg my parents to take the kids. They actually enjoy it more then you'd think. They're usually begging to have the kids.

Here are a few more random pictures...

And here's my Princess Kiana in her new dressup clothes she got from Santa! It is going to be an awesome year! Have a good one.