I Love Fall

My parents came up to see us (and drop off our new car) the beginning of October, and we had the opportunity to take them up to Kirtland to see the sights and of course the gorgeous fall colors. Here's a few pictures of our trip. Brian would like me to point out that he took all the pictures, as well as the big one at the top of our blog. No, you can't hire him to do your wedding pictures. Sorry.

The Kirtland Temple. I'd love to find out what flowers these were around the temple. They were GOR-GE-OUS!

If you're a little confused by this picture, Kylee's standing in front of a pond with the reflection of the trees behind her.

"Hey, look at that cool leaf on the ground! Let's stare really hard at it until dad's done taking our picture, ok?"

Disney on Ice

Disney on Ice recently came to town, so we took the girls a little before Makayla's birthday. The girls wore their Disney hats and crowns, and absolutely LOVED the show! Kylee was screaming and waving at the characters and jumping up and down in her seat the whole time. It was pretty funny. At the intermission, Makayla turned to me and held up 1 finger and said she wanted to watch "one more movie." I think she thought she was watching a movie. :)

Makayla is 3 Years Old!

My baby is now 3 years old! *sniff* Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was bringing her bald, screaming head home from the hospital. Sorry. Getting off topic here. Anyways, we were by ourselves for Makayla's birthday, so we just had a fun little birthday party with our family. Makayla requested a blue puppy cake, so I tapped into my inner Martha Stewart and whipped out a Blue's Clues cake any kid would have been proud of. :)

TA-DA!!

I'm judging from her face that the cake tasted as good as it looked.

Makayla got a lot of fun presents, including a farm, with farm animals and cars from Grandma Olsen, a tool set (Dad wants to make sure his girls are the independent, strong, tool-wielding type), wooden blocks, a Barbie car and Ken, a "Kayla" doll, a Puppy in my Pocket set, and a Tinkerbell wand and crown set from Nana Phillips.

Seriously, I'm gonna need to clean out the toy room before Christmas.

A Look Back

As we get into another great school year, I just wanted to take a moment to look back on some of mine and Brian's old yearbook photos. First here's Brian:

Totally boss

Used all his mom's Crisco for this picture

Lovable nerd

Long-hair phase

Not sure about the afro

Business in front, party in the back

Almost got the role of Zach on 'Saved by the Bell'

And now for Becky's:

Pin curls never go out of style

I wish I still had those wing-tip glasses!

I could be Samantha's sister on Bewitched!

Gotta have my flower shirt like any decent hippie.

This reminds me of my mom so much, it's scary.

Farrah Fawcett stage

Not sure if brunette is really my color

I'm pretty sure this is my actual 7th grade picture.

Makayla

I thought since Kylee's had so much attention with kindergarten that Makayla needed her own post. My little Makayla will be 3 in a month, and this last year she has grown up so much. She is such a beautiful, sweet-natured, happy little girl! She may act like Kylee's little shadow a lot of the time, but she has such a funny little personality of her own that I've loved watching develop. When she gets in a silly mood, her laugh is so hilarious we all can't help but laugh too! She's a little ray of sunshine in our household, and I'm glad I'll have the opportunity to have some one-on-one time with her while Kylee is in school (being the 2nd child, she hasn't had a lot of that!). Here's some recent pictures of my baby.... I mean, BIG GIRL (as she constantly reminds me)!

Kylee starts Kindergarten

I can't believe it - my little Kylee started Kindergarten!! She was sooooo excited, which I was glad about, but I was still a little sad knowing that she will be gone all day 5 days a week. Kylee's first day was a huge success, she loves her teacher and all the fun things they do. When she got home she kept talking about her friend "Brooklyn." I was glad she made a friend, until that night when she announced to Brian and me that she's going to marry Brooklyn when she grows up. That's how we found out that Brooklyn is a boy!! We told her not to even think about marrying anybody for 15 more years. Jeesh!! Isn't she a little young to be starting this??

Here's my cute little school girl in her school uniform:

This was me and Makayla after we dropped Kylee off. Makayla cried all the way home, but only because she said she wanted to eat at Kylee's school, like we did the night of the open house. I was worried she would have a hard time with Kylee gone, but she seems to be doing great. I think she enjoys having the toy room to herself!

Brian's Parents Come to Visit

We had the great privelage of having Brian's parents come and visit us the end of July for one crazy, fun-filled, whirlwind week. As Kylee would say, "It's a miracle." It was great to have family come visit us, especially since we don't get to see family very often, and we usually just sit here all sad and lonely (sniff). Even though we were dead tired by the time they left, we had so much fun, and we're so glad they came to see us! So, anybody else wanna come visit? We'll show ya a good time, I promise. :) By the way, these pictures are in backwards order of when we did stuff. I was just too lazy to switch them around.

Ellen in front of the big bat statue at the Louisville Slugger museum, where they make....can you guess? Louisville Slugger bats!

The girls showing off their souvenir bats from the museum

Brian with Kylee who's holding some old famous baseball player's bat (can't remember whose it was)

Brian imitating the great Babe Ruth at the museum

Makayla took this picture of us in Brown County. Child prodigee!

Brian and his dad at the Cincinnati Reds game. They lost, as usual. Nice matching Utah shirts, boys.

Ellen and the girls. Isn't this picture adorable?

Me, Ellen, and Makayla at the Johnson farm in Kirtland.

All of us, except Brian, on one of the Ohio river cruises, with the skyline of Cincy in the background. Brian had to work most days, poor thing.

This pretty much sums up how we all felt after dropping off my in-laws in Louisville when they flew out. Yep, that's Makayla sleeping under there.

Disney World

Here's a few pictures from our fun, but HOT, day at the Magic Kingdom. Along with our family, Matt, Aline, Nancy, and Bruno went.

The 4 of us in front of the castle. If you're wondering why there's a cloud of smoke in front of the castle, that's from the show that was going on in front of it.

Kylee and Makayla in front of Mickey's house.

Makayla, Nancy, Aline, and Kylee

Me, Brian, Matt, Bruno, and Kylee on Splash Mountain (Kylee was behind Brian)

Trying to pull out the Sword in the Stone

The Light Parade that night.