The Start of Something New

This picture was taken a little over 2 years ago when Kelly completed his Bachelors degree from University of Phoenix. Kelly and his brother, Bryan completed their Bachelors degrees just months apart and had the opportunity to actually walk together during the University of Phoenix graduation ceremony. In May of 2007 Kelly started classes at University of Wisconsin Whitewater to get his Masters Degree via the Internet. Today he is officially done. His final test was today and he is now, done with school. He opted to not walk in Wisconsin so I will have to settle with the graduation pictures I took when he received his Bachelors degree. We are so proud of him. He has worked so hard and he is finally DONE. Yay! This is actually very new for us because he has been going to school since the day we dated. I wonder what he will do with all of his free time?


Kelly, we are so proud of you. Congratulations! Thank you for all your hard work. We love you!

-Nicole, Hunter, Kora & Mylie

It's a Boy!

We have just adopted a 15 Month old BOY. He's Blond with Brown Eyes and very BIG. He's already Potty Trained and gets along well with the other kids. Kora is scared to death of him but she's getting better. Hunter is absolutely in love and Mylie crawls all over him. Kelly is so excited to have this new addition to our family that you can literally see the excitement and love on his face. It's adorable. Here is a picture of him and Mylie.

We were in a store up in Carson City, Nevada when a woman walked up to Kelly and I and asked us if we wanted a 15 month old, Potty Trained, Good with Kids, Golden Labrador....for Free. Kelly and I looked at each other and told her how very tempting the offer was. We got her number and talked it over and called her almost 15 minutes later telling her we wanted him. We drove up to a meeting point and picked him up. His previous owner called him Chico but we decided to rename him. Because we were made the offer in Carson City we decided that he should be named Carson. He really is a great dog. After being around a psycho, hyper, destructo dog named Joy, I was a little hesitant about getting a dog but Carson seems to fit in perfectly. He's very tame and the fact that he's already potty trained made the choice even easier. He actually made a 9 hour car ride home without going once (even though we stopped several times so he could go). Once we got home Kelly took him for a walk and then he went. His previous owner said he's a chewer but as long as he has some chew toys he wont destroy anything else. I'm hoping this is true. We'll have to see.

As for our trip up to Minden, Nevada to see Kelly's Nani and Papa...it was great as usual. The kids loved being with Nani and Papa and cousins and family. Hunter's favorite part was playing with Nani and Papa's dog, Sunny. He spent the entire day playing with her that he actually got sick Friday from being out in the cold. He was heart broken when we told him that he couldn't play outside with her any more because he was sick. You could only imagine his excitement when we told him we met Santa and he brought him (and our family)an early Christmas present. When we were getting ready to leave he kept a good hold on Carson's leash asking if we could get him and take him to "our house". He was going to make sure we didn't forget him.

We had a wonderful time with Nani and Papa and as usual it was way too fast. We had fun with the Perucci family who also came up to visit. Going up for Thanksgiving has been sort of a tradition we've kept for a few years. We love it. Hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Let's Talk Potty

I tried to take the most decent potty picture I could. Kora will probably hate me when she gets older but I HAD to take a picture for her scrapbook. She was all too willing to pose. So, I'll use that as my excuse when she gets older.

Kora has decided it was time she started going to the bathroom on the potty. One day she woke up and told us that she had to go pee pee on the potty. So, I took her and she went and we had to do the pee pee dance (whatever we have to do to help encourage her). She still uses a diaper but she will often tell us that she has to use the potty. Hunter was never so easy. I'm still encouraging diapers for her since we are going to Minden this week and I don't want to have to deal with a potty training baby and underwear on a long trip. But as soon as we come back I think it will be underwear from here on out. Yay!

More potty talk....

I dropped Hunter off at School a few days ago and here was a little conversation we had. To give you a little background, Hunter's school is in Chino which often smells like cows.

Hunter: It's stinky out here!

Me: Yes, it smells like cows.

Hunter: I think someone needs to wipe the cows bum bums.

I laughed for days about this one. It was one for the memory books. Only a child could be so honest.

Comfortable Enough to Sleep?

One of my favorite parts of being a parent is watching my children sleep. It's a great time to get a few things done in temporary silence but my favorite part is the funny positions they seem to fall asleep into. I can't recall ever being so tired that I couldn't just lay comfortably on the couch or in my bed. I could probably fall asleep anywhere but there is no way I could fall asleep if I wasn't comfortable. These positions don't look comfortable to me but I doubt they would have fallen asleep if they didn't think so....or maybe it's that they are just too tired to even care?

This picture was what originally prompted this post. Mylie fell asleep last night by our front door while she was playing with 2 balls. Kelly took pictures then put a blanket over her. I'm starting to think she would be able to fall asleep anywhere and in any position.

This is the only one I could find of Kora sleeping in a funny position and it's not that recent. She actually falls asleep pretty "normally". This may just be the one time she was an exception to the rule.

This is my favorite of Hunter sleeping in a funny position. I posted it awhile back but it's one of my favorites so I wanted it in this post.

Halloween 2008

Mylie (above) was Auntie Fester. We called her Uncle Fester but she is a girl so we will oblige her years from now when she asks us why we dressed her up as a man, we can say we didn't. Surprisingly she gave us no problems when it came to putting her face make-up on. She was actually trying to eat the little sponge as it got close to her face. When we gave her the light bulb we were afraid she would throw it. She put it exactly where it was supposed to go. Too bad it didn't light up.

The story behind her costume was her lack of hair. Kelly said she's so bald we should make her Uncle Fester for Halloween...and so it was so.

Kora was our Cinderella or as she called herself "LaLa". I tried to get a straight on shot of Kora in her costume but the girl refused to smile. So this was my favorite of the millions I tried to take. As we were walking up to one of the houses and got our candy we started to head back down the driveway and wouldn't you know, she actually lost her shoe on the driveway. Prince Charming wasn't around so I put it back on her foot. Even if he was around I think I would have to tell him to come back in about 30 years.Hunter was Indiana Jones this year. He had been telling people for months that he was going to be Indiana Jones. When we went to Disneyland last month his souvenir was his Indiana Jones hat. He has been wearing it everywhere. One funny thing about his whip was...I completely forgot to get him one. How can Indiana Jones not have a whip? I went to 5 stores and each were sold out. I told Kelly's Uncle Steve that he wasn't going to have a whip so he attempted to make one. I think he told his neighbor our dilemma and next thing I know his neighbor, Scott was out on his lawn spray painting a rope that he put a little handle on so Hunter could have a whip. I'm still amazed that Scott had all these supplies around his house. Hunter was extremely grateful and of course it completed his costume. What a great guy! Hunter and I made him some pumpkin bread to thank him.

Overall it was a great night. We went Trick or Treating with Colt Christensen. He is a Handicapped boy that Kelly's Aunt and Uncle watch. The kids had such a great time together going door to door and getting candy. I just love Halloween. Hunter is already planning his, Kora and Mylie's costumes for next year.

Hunter's first Primary Program

As most of you know, cameras are not allowed in the chapel so unfortunately I have no pictures. Hunter's first primary program was yesterday. He was so adorable. The girls in his class are nearly an entire head length taller than him. I kept hoping that maybe the girls were standing on a step but sadly, they weren't. Our boy is small but I love it. I just hope he'll have a really good growth spurt someday.

Hunter had 2 lines yesterday: "My name is Hunter and I am a child of God" He said it perfectly. His second line however "Our theme for April was I will follow the Prophet" was not exactly understandable. The only reason I know what he said was because the leaders had mailed me his lines to help him learn them. We went over them but like most Sunbeams he must have forgotten and said what he thought he heard the Primary President tell him. It was cute regardless. I was just proud that even though you had no clue what he said (in his second line) he still spoke loudly. I am shocked and amazed that Hunter is old enough to have his first primary program. Kids grow up way too fast. I still recall flying up to see Kelly's sister, Jodie and her family in Virginia. While we were their our oldest Nephew, Preston had his first primary program. Preston just turned 8 this year so that was 4 years ago. At the time Hunter was about 3 months old. I can't remember what Preston's lines were but I remember thinking he was so cute. I also remember him being a head taller than all of his classmates. He's going to be a tall boy, I just hope Hunter will be too.

Primary programs are always cute because of all the kids but when your own child or a child that you know is in it, it makes it even more fun. What makes the programs so adorable are the lines the children have but also the songs that they sing. Nothing is sweeter than children's voices. We couldn't hear Hunter but we could see that he was singing. It was a fun sacrament meeting. Great-Grandpa Kerr, Nani Susie, Grandpa Yaden and Callie all came out to see him.

Mylie Milestones

Last night when we put Mylie down for bed and went into our room Kora started screaming something about Mylie. A little scared I ran into their room only to find Mylie standing in her bed. Not such a bad thing when you look at this picture but this is after we lowered it. Mylie is finally pulling herself to the standing position which has meant lowering her crib from the infant laying level to the now more mobile baby level. What a sad yet happy moment. Even sadder still is the absolute lowest level which we will probably have to lower to in a few months. This means our little baby is growing up and way too fast if I may add.

Another milestone for our little Mylie also happened today when I looked down at her toothless grin and saw that her first little tooth has popped through her gums. She has been so good that I didn't even realize she was teething. No more toothless gummy grins for this baby girl. She's growing up!