Family Pictures

A couple weeks ago we had our family pictures taken by our friend Melissa. She does photography part time, and does a great job of it. She knew of a great place to take our pictures with a really cool rock amphitheatre, lots of leaves, and two ponds. She took tons of pictures for us and it was really hard to decide which ones to post. But here there are. If you want a fabulous photographer for family pictures, engagements, wedding pictures, etc. you should call Melissa. Her website is http://folksphoto.com.

Alyssa absolutely loved playing in the leaves.
Whenever we were kissing Alyssa she would think it was funny at first and then she would say "stop, stop!"

I love this innocent face.
Alyssa had a fun time throwing leaves into the pond. We were disappointed that we didn't bring bread to feed the fishes and duck.

So sweet!

Our family!

Throwing leaves again.

Giving mommy kisses.

I thought this picture was hilarious. "Mom & dad, what are you doing?"

Walking up the path.

Melissa also has a blog, which is one of our links to the right. You should check out her work.

Pumpkins and Pictures

Last night we did our pumpkin carving, so we just wanted to post a few pictures on here.

Katie carved the bat, Jesse carved Elmo, Alyssa colored on her little pumpkin, Garr carved the storm trooper, and Sally carved Ironman. Sally is of course the most artistic of all of us, and the only one who just sketched hers on the pumpkin. The rest of us used cheat sheets.

This is part of Alyssa's costume. Unfortunately she looks way cuter without the rest of it. She has fairy wings and a tutu, but they are orange, and she doesn't have anything that goes well with them right now. We'll have to see if we can fix that.

Here are some vegetables that we got from the garden we inherited from our former neighbors the Jeppesens. Thanks guys!

Alyssa got a cool house for a couple of days from our washer and dryer boxes. She liked it for a little bit, but really didn't want to go in there unless mom or dad was going in to play with her.

ABCs

Alyssa can count to 13!

We haven't posted in a long while, sorry about that. As soon as we got settled in to our apartment, school started and we've been pretty busy ever since. Hopefully I'll do an apartment post later, but I wanted to commemorate this day to Alyssa's counting. For a while now she has been saying 2-3-10, but today we caught her counting to 10. I had to go take a test, but Jesse asked her if she wanted to count with him. She would lead the counting all the way to 13 and then Jesse would lead to 20. When they came to pick me up from my test, we started to count and she didn't want to stop. What a smart little girl. Now we just need to get her to say all her ABCs. She says most of them, but she skips some like e, i, and r. When we get the video camera charged we'll have to get video up of her counting and saying her ABCs.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to Us!

Yesterday was our 3rd wedding anniversary. It is crazy how quickly three years go by. I thought I would post a few wedding picture to reminisce. We were married in the Nauvoo temple. Here we are with our beautiful bridesmaids and handsome groomsmen. My mom made all of the bridesmaids' dresses, most of the groomsmens' ties and all of the flowers. She is pretty much amazing.

Doesn't Jesse look handsome?

Now for what we actually did on our anniversary. We spent about 5 hours staining my parent's fence. Luckily it wasn't too terribly hot outside. This is the neighbor's gate next to our newly stained fence. Doesn't it look so much better.
This is the part of the fence that Jesse and I worked on mostly. Next weeks task will be landscaping the backyard.
After staining the fence, we did go out for dinner. We went to Tgi Fridays, which was some pretty good food. After that we did a little bit of shopping. We got some treats and came home to enjoy a movie together. I have to say it was a wonderful anniversary, it is really nice to accomplish something. Now we couldn't leave a post without a picture of Alyssa. This isn't a picture of Alyssa, but it leads to a picture of Alyssa. My brother, Brett, was putting Alyssa's farm animals on his face as you can see.

After that Alyssa was trying really hard to do the same. We helped her out a little bit and here is the outcome.

What a funny girl.

Recent Happenings

In our ward here in Texas, there is a lady that had quadruplets about 5 months ago. She brought three of them to church a few weeks ago and she let a few families hold them since she can't hold three at once. My mom was holding Nathan and so I took him from her. After that Alyssa wanted to hold him. We let her hold him for a while, but he started to look uncomfortable and we took him away from her. She had a fit and wouldn't stop unless she could hold the baby. Crazy girl; she didn't seem jealous at all because she wanted to be with whom ever was holding the Nathan. In nursery when the toys come out she always picks up a specific little dolly. Sounds like she is about ready for some siblings, but she will have to wait until I'm done with school. Which is less than a year away. Hooray!

Grandma decided she wanted to put curlers in Alyssa's hair. I only have a picture of the curlers in. Afterwards her hair looked kind of funny on top. The next time grandma decided to only put them in on the sides, but the curls don't last very long, especially with an active little girl. My dad's work celebrated its tenth anniversary by having all the families go to an Astros game vs. the New York Mets. It was a really great time and the company even provided pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, cake, etc. We even got to witness a grand slam in the 8th inning. The game was tied 3-3. The bases were loaded and one person struck out and then the next person hit a homerun. It was awesome and the crowd went wild. Something Alyssa didn't like very much. Towards the end of the game I could tell Alyssa was getting really tired, she kept walking back and forth through the bleachers trying to keep herself awake. We wanted to wait until the end though because they have Friday Night Fireworks. Minute Maid Park actually has a roof that can be opened up. During the game the roof was closed and they had air conditioning so it was pretty darn cool. After the game was over they opened up the roof for the fireworks. It was pretty amazing to watch the roof slowly open up. The firework display was amazing. It was set to music and was really a great show. Alyssa ended up falling asleep during the fireworks, which I found pretty funny. Here is Jesse and I enjoying the food and the game.
Recently I have been making some decorating items for when we get back to our apartment in Provo. Thanks to the Jeppesens, we actually have an apartment in Provo that we will be moving into on the 21st of August. I've seen these in a lot of people's houses and really liked them, so I decided to try to make one. My mom has all kinds of crafting materials that I can use.
Here is my flower arrangement, double-sided table runner, and kitchen soap dispenser for our kitchen/dining area. I have also been working on and have finished a 4-month meal plan that includes weekly shopping lists. Hopefully this will make my life slightly easier during school and pretty much from here on out. I'll probably have to update it a little when our family gets larger.

On Saturday we went to a 1st birthday party, so my mom went to Toys 'R Us to get a gift. She ended up getting Alyssa a little farm house because she said she really hadn't gotten her anything for her first birthday. Here is Alyssa with Brett trying to figure it all out.

We went over to Max's (the little boy turning one) house and Alyssa had a blast. Max is an only child so far and his parents are well established and so he has quite a few toys. Alyssa especially loved this zebra jumping toy. She bounced up and down; Jesse had a hard time getting her to stop so he could get a good picture. This one is a little fuzzy, but pretty good for the camera on a cell phone.

We only have a couple weeks left here in Texas, which is crazy. It almost seems like we just got here. We'll be sad to leave my family, but it will be fun to see friends that we have missed in Provo.

Summer Pictures

Last night we were at walmart and Alyssa and I were walking past the electronics section. I was very pleased when I heard her yell "Ba-Ball" excitedly. She apparently had seen a basketball game on the tvs and was excited about it. That's daddy's girl! Here are some pictures from this summer that we have been meaning to get up. Hope you enjoy, but be warned, viewer discretion is advised on the last picture.



Dad and Alyssa hat shopping.



Looks like we found a couple of hats we liked!



The neighborhood was pretty crazy with a lot of fireworks going on for the 4th, and Alyssa loved them for the 2nd straight year.



Texas is really getting into Alyssa's blood.



She loves that fudgecicle.



Alyssa in her new swimming pool. She really likes to play with about 20 golf balls in there.



She is also able to swing really well, she has a baby swing now, but she can handle the big kid swing on her own too.

So this is the last one, go on if you dare. We were in Ross the other day looking at swim suits for Katie, and we found this little jewel. She wouldn't let me get it for a gag gift, so I had to share it with everyone. Maybe you have seen these, but it is basically a bra for your bum. It keeps it perfectly shaped and firm looking! Hilarious!

Throwback to the old school

Hey, this really is a coincidence, but that last video had an old rap song becuase it was kind of a boxing song. This next one is one that Katie's brother David taught Alyssa, so we had to put it on here. I think it's now her favorite song. Ice Ice Baby!

Mama Said Knock You Out!

As you can see from the video, she favors the right hook.

Some new pictures

Well, things are going well, kind of. Katie's job is ok, and I am really liking mine. FMC is a good company, and I am enjoying my work. I have been sick this week, and Alyssa woke up pretty sick this morning, but she has been surprisingly cheerful. She is a lot of fun. She is starting to get really talkative, she had a conversation with my sister Sally for about 15 minutes over the phone the other day. Of course nothing of what she said was understood, but she would listen, then laugh, and then she would talk when Sally asked her questions. She is getting pretty good at saying some words too, along with her many signs that she knows. Her favorite fruit is now a strawberry, she says "staabouy".

We finally got some of the pictures off of our camera, so I wanted to put some of them up here.

The other night I was filling up the bath and stepped out of the bathroom for a minute. I heard a splash and a gasp and ran in to find this.

She loves to lean over the edge of the tub and touch the water. I guess she leaned a little too far!

Alyssa loves to try on shoes, especially ones that aren't hers. Here is one of those times, it also gives a shot of her haircut that grandma gave her.

I thought this was a funny picture so I had to include it.

More shoes

We have found a new problem in that Alyssa refuses to understand that she can't draw on her body, or the table, or the chairs, or her doll, or anything she wants really. We're working on it.

Alyssa loves to play in the bath, and one of her new tricks is to blow bubbles. She really likes it, we need to take her swimming more often.