Halloween 2009

I feel like Halloween is in 2 stages now, Tyler who is really too old to go trick-or treating and then Kynleigh who is just starting. I think Heavenly Father knew that maybe I wasn’t ready to give up all these fun traditions like Trick-or Treating. Brieanna and her 2 best friends, Abbie and Megan planned for months to be hippy 70’s girls. She had fun going to different costume stores and picking out her dress.

Kynleigh was a black and purple spider, if I can say, the cutest spider ever to walk the earth. She was cute going out to the houses and wasn’t quit sure about it all, but she smiled and went along with it. Troy and I were able to go out with her for the first time and left the older kids to pass out candy. (that is the best part, having kids to do the dirty work).

As for Tyler, I don’t really know what he was. He went downstairs 5 minutes before his friends were coming over and put stuff on out of the dress up box. (clown hat, CTR cape and a cheerleader skirt).

We had 168 Trick-or Treater’s come by the house that night, it is amazing how many kids live and come to our neighborhood.

Kynleigh's 1 year photos

My sister-in-law Becky met us down at the Gardner Village and took a lot of photos of Kynleigh for her first birthday. She did a great job but she had a darn cute girl to work with too. :) If you want to view the pictures, go to Becky's Photos.

THANK YOU Becky, you are the best!

Yard Sales

"One man's junk is another man's treasure" (or woman in this case) Can I just say that I LOVE going to yard sales and thrift stores. I could spend hours browsing around the DI. Granted, you do find a lot of "junk" but there is always something there that I want and I don't feel too guilty buying it because it is so cheap.

This summer I really hit the yard sales hard, almost every weekend that we were around and didn't have anything going on in the mornings. I have found so many fun things for my daycare that they kids just love. It is really cute on Monday morning when they find the new surprise you hear - oh Mrs Caryn where did you find this, can I play? It is great!

A sad day happened when our TV downstairs passed away. For days I kept trying to revitalize it, doing some chest compressions and what ever I could think of to make it come back to life, but finally I had to come to grips that it was gone for good. We have already spent too much money in the past trying to repair it so to the garage it went. Troy and I hit the yard sales hard that next weekend (searched the paper and highlighted our planned route). We found an even BIGGER TV for only $25. We had to get rid of our entertainment center as well. The TV was just a couple of inches too big to fit in the opening. Oh well that will soon be in the garage next to the dead TV.

OK, now my most prize possession this summer from going to yard sales is my salsa maker. We were camping with Grandpa Doman at Elko and he made the best salsa and he used this little salsa maker that ground everything up really fine, just the way I like it. The very next weekend, guess what I found...

I love this thing and have made salsa almost every weekend since. I don't know what I am going to do when the roma tomatoes go up in price over the winter and when I can't pick them from the garden. I will have the winter salsa blues I guess.

Frozen Corn Dogs

Who would have thought that Kynleigh (or anyone) would like frozen corn dogs? Here is my side of the story...

We have a refrigerator that is oh 10 years old. You would think it would still work like it should, however the ice maker keeps freezing up and then it doesn't make ice. (on very hot summer days that doesn't make me real happy) So I have to go in and pour HOT water on the tray to thaw out the ice that is clogging the maker and then wait and normally it goes back to normal for a couple of weeks and I do it all over again. I am very proud of myself as I have this process down to a science now (after so many times doing it) I use to have to take practically everything out of the freezer as water would drip and run everywhere and then of course freeze. Now, not a drop is lost!

Okay back to Kynleigh, I finally got around to doing my thing last night after everyone left for the day and had the freezer open, next thing I know, I see Kynleigh walking around the kitchen and then down the hall with a corn dog in her mouth. I didn't think too much about it because it was FROZEN, but as you can see in the picture, she ate quite a bit off the top and enjoyed every minute. So the new teething solution for us is pull out the frozen corn dogs!

Kynleigh is walking!!!

Yes, my little munchkin is walking all over the place. I can't believe it and everyone that sees her, says that she is too little to be walking. I am not sure she can do much more damage than when she was just crawling, just maybe a little faster. (she is a terror, getting into everything).
The first video is of her climbing up the stairs. This started about a month ago and she LOVES to go up the stairs and she is so fast at it.

The second video is of her walking, I just noticed that they both have her in her PJ's and holding the Wii remote. I guess I need to get the video camera out more than just at night.

Pictures for Nana

I love you mom!

Brieanna's Room

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to embarrass Brieanna in any way. I guess it is only fair since I wrote a post a while ago about Tyler's room. I love you Brieanna!!!
A while ago, I took a CERT class in our city (Community Emergency Response Team) The class was 6 weeks long and the manual was literally 2-3 inches thick. I am still nervous if someones life is in my hands, but I learned a lot and enjoy being part of the community. In Utah the main disaster we have to worry about is an earthquake. We learned how to determine the extent of damage in a building. I always tease Brieanna that her room looks like an earthquake hit it, but according to this class it is only minor damage. (She felt better about herself that it was not major) You can be the judge though. (Notice the dirty clothes hamper is empty)
I will help her clean it really nice, sometimes even go through the closet. She will do really well for a few days about keeping it clean and then little by little it turns into the picture below. Every time I help her I always say that I won't help her again and then I just can't stand it any longer. It is a vicious cycle. (I don't do well with messes like that) HELP!!! Any suggestions???

Mud Pies

It is that time of the summer where I can't stand my yard, so every night we have been outside trimming bushes, weeding and all the good stuff that goes with our yard. Tonight it was Tyler's turn to help and he did not complain as he got to handle the electric trimmer. It was going really well until he cut into the electric cord. I could not get mad as I have actually done this in the past. (I think he appreciated not getting in trouble for that one) I decided that it was a sign to go inside as it is really hot these days.

Well Kynleigh did not last too long in the stroller so I put her in the grass. She entertained herself with some flowers for a while (probably eating some of them). Then every time I turned around, she was in my flower beds. (eating more dirt) Putting her in the grass just did not do it for her, she always found herself back in the dirt. I even tried to distract her by giving her some animal crackers but I think she just rubbed them in the dirt and ate them too.

Here is what the final product looked like. The bath was a wonderful thing tonight.

Family Reunion 2009

Each year Troy's dad parks his trailer at a camp spot for a week and then all of his kids and Willa's kids and families come as much as they can and just have fun and enjoy the great outdoors. He went to Bear Lake 2 years ago, but for the last 2 year he has picked the Camper World in Eko and besides some little things here and there, we love it. It is close enough to drive home at night for us as camping is not Troy's favorite thing to do and then Kynleigh did not do such a great job last time we tried to camp over night in a tent this last year. This camp spot has a swimming pool, horse shoes, hiking, pond and river for fishing, you name it and it is close by.

Tory's brother Matt is the fisher in the family and he always brings his poles and bait (not power bait because that is not allowed and they got kicked off the pond last year) and the kids have fun casting and getting tangled in the shrubs or in other fishers lines. Yea it is a lot of fun.

Kynleigh however was not having so much fun fishing. She was ready for bed and was not shy about telling us and all the other campers about it. The fish in the photo above was caught by a fisher next to us and the kids thought that was pretty cool.

As much as we enjoyed fishing and all the other activities, swimming was the main item on Brieanna's agenda. That is all she talked about and begged for while at the camp site and in the car driving to and from Eko. I was worried a little about Kynleigh, but she did great. We put her in the pool for a good 2 hours twice a day for 2 days and not any complaining from her. We would even sit her on the edge of the pool and she would jump to us. It was a lot of fun, playing the tip game with the beach ball (I think we only go to about 25 though, we are not very good), the game chicken and the kids had fun diving for rings and whatever we would throw in the water.

Here are some photos of everyone drying off and sleeping after a long day of swimming.

Go Salt Lake Real!!!

One of the perks for volunteering with AYSO is that we get Real tickets once in a while. This was a special game on June 6th as it was the night that the stadium was dedicated. There was a jet that flew over and dropped several airmen carrying flags. It was really a neat experience as they dropped to the field especially the one caring the American flag.

As you can see in the pictures, it was a very ominous sky. We were so worried that we would get rained on, but we never got more than about 5 drops the whole game, which was a miracle. David Archuleta was there to sing the National Anthem and of course was a hit for us Utah fans. All the big wigs of the stadium and team were there and Elder Gonzalez was asked to give the dedicatory prayer. (Only in Utah) It was really neat though as he explained before the prayer in Spanish and English what he was about to do and basically asked for respect.

Kynleigh was so good and of course had the attention of all the fans around her.

Buffalo Point Elementary 5K Run/Walk

Going back... June 1st

Tyler and Brieanna's school did a 1st annual 5K run/walk as a fund raiser. We got geared up for the excitement. Drank lots of water, did our pre-run (oh excuse me "walk") stretches, took our pre-walk pictures, thought to ourselves this won't be too bad and it will be a fun family activity. Notice we all had big natural smiles.

Well the whistle blew and many took off running even Tyler and his buddies and then there was Troy and I with Kynleigh in the back happy to walk. We walked and walked and talked and talked and walked some more. By the end of the 5K we were thinking how grateful we are that we were not born in the pioneer days and had to walk across the country. We did make it to the finish line and I think we were the very last ones there (maybe there was one other lady, everything got all fuzzy) Troy being the funny one that he was, got on his hands and knees and crawled across the finish line. Of course everyone had their cameras ready but me. Oh well, we all got medals and a Popsicle that Kynleigh just loves to eat. We enjoyed the live band and visiting with friends. (PS. Troy was sore for a week after :))

4th of July

Going Back to the 4th of July

We had a really fun weekend. It ended up that Friday the 3rd, I did not have any daycare kids (lucky for me) which was a welcome break. Troy's Uncle Ken and Robin were in town and Troy ended up going golfing with Ken, Travis and Eric. Robin and I took the kids to the Roy aquatic center. This was our first trip there this summer and Kynleigh's first trip to the pool and we had a blast. Kynleigh did not like being splashed that much, but she enjoyed floating in the water and checking everyone out. We ate lots of grapes and sweedish fish and enjoyed the fun in the sun.

That evening, we had our annual neighborhood party. Me and Andrea Bitton pass out invitations, set up a couple of tables and then the people show up. Everyone bring their own treat to share and whatever fireworks they want to set off. We do a kids parade at the beginning and they love it. I was so excited to pull Kynleigh in the wagon for the parade this year, but she fell asleep before it even started. Oh well, I guess there is always next year. We have a great neighborhood and love this time every year to bring everyone together.

Saturday the 4th, we headed up to Idaho Falls to have a family BBQ at the Dawson's. They cooked everything from the beef and potatoes to the cobblers in dutch ovens so that says it all, it was delicious. We took a walk to the school playground just around the corner and enjoy the famous fireworks from their front yard. It is 30 minutes of non stop booming and beautiful lights. Kynleigh did wake up for some of it and just enjoyed watching the pretty colors. How grateful I am for the USA and the freedoms we have and for the men and women who serve this great country.

Kynleigh

I have been extremely blesses this spring in acquiring some play equipment for my daycare. A neighbor gave me a little tikes set with slide and fort underneath and I also got a stage two little tikes play set from another friend for free. This is a picture of Kynleigh in the swing. She loves to swing either in my lap on the big swings or in this little swing. She must have been tired because next thing I knew, she was falling asleep.

Kynleigh loves dumping all her toys out of this little basket. She will sit forever with a basket full of toys. Troy thought it would be cute putting her in the basket and she liked it too.

Kynleigh has learned to pull herself up on things. In the bath tub, in her crib etc. I heard her talking to herself after a nap one day and when I went in to get her, she was stuck like this, however she was still way happy with her accomplishment. She has even started to crawl this week, watch out mom, you are in for it!

Tyler Graduated

Tyler Graduated!!!. I don’t know how or where the time went, but I now have a 7th grader.
This year was filled with lots of fun memories for Tyler. He got to go to the Syracuse 6 theater a couple of times to see movies, he took a field trip to the University of Utah for and engineers activity where they made catapults. (Tyler cheated and used his friends catapult that he made at scouts) Almost every week Officer Penrod came to the school for the DARE program to make them aware of the effects of drugs.

Officer Penrod

They did all kinds of fun activities like drive go-karts while wearing drunk goggles and they also had to try to throw a baseball and foot ball with them on. The 6th grade also got to play a kick ball game against all the teaches and they had a 6th grade dance (where they actually HAD to dance with girls) I told Tyler I was going to go and watch, but he said that if I loved him at all, I would just stay home. (I guess I as a mom am too embarrassing)
Then the year ended with the 6th grade graduation. They had all the students to write what they wanted to be doing in 20 years and Tyler said he wants to be a professional soccer player or be a chief in California restaurant with his friend, be married and have a son. (I may not get many grandchildren out of my first born)

Although I tell Tyler that he may not live to see his next birthday, I am so proud of him. Syracuse JH, here comes Tyler the Domanator!
We love you Tyler!!!

Brieanna's 4th grade program

This year Brieanna was in 4th grade and studied Utah history. In their year end program they did a great job demonstrating what they learned. They dressed up in their pioneer clothes they had a lot of fun. They sang songs about the counties of the state, Utah pioneers, the train coming to Utah and this is the place, and many more. The two songs that I liked the best were Utah pioneers and this is the place. I was not raised in Utah, but it made me think how grateful I am to live here and how grateful I am that the pioneers endured all that they did to come and settle such a beautiful place for me to live and raise my family. I think I take for granted the many things that we have so close to home and I was glad for the reminder of how great this beautiful state is and what history it has. (I still need to see half of it though)
Good job Brieanna we are proud of you, you made it through another year.

We love you!!!

Memorial Weekend 2009

We had planned to go to Yellowstone for quite some time, but plans always seem to change at the last minute and we decided to go camping with Troy’s dad and Willa at Echo. Our goal was to camp up there Friday, Saturday and come home Sunday, but that changed as well. We got up there Friday and set up the tent and got all set for some great fun. It was very relaxing just with nothing to worry about. Willa, Brieanna, Kynleigh and I walked around the park, went down to the lake and watched some of the fishers. Jasper went with us and loved every minute of it. (Even when she ran out of the camper and played chase with Brieanna and I. (I was not loving her at that point :) )

Kynleigh playing on the floor with Willa's toys

Kynleigh's improvised bath, she loved it.

It was pretty windy that night and we didn’t even think about Brieanna being afraid of the wind until about midnight when she woke up and was terrified. So in she went to the trailer to sleep on the couch. When I got back to the tent, sap all over my feet, Kynleigh was starting to cry as well. I don’t blame her for waking up as it sounded like a hurricane in our tent. So I rocked her in my arms and tried to lay her back down several times. After about an hour of doing that I decided to join Brieanna in the trailer. I threw the blanket down on the floor for Kynleigh, fed her a little to calm her down so she did not wake the entire camp grounds and then I tried to sleep on the floor without much luck. Needless to say that morning could not come too soon and I was looking forward to my own bed that night. Troy on the other hand took Tylenol PM before he went to bed, so he slept like a baby till about 9:00 the next morning. (As much as he could with Tyler in his ribs the whole night)

Sleeping arrangements!

The camp served breakfast at 10:00 which we were at the end of the line so we just got waffles and sausage. It was still good and was fun to sit and listen to Rick the camp manager sing and play his guitar. Tyler and Grandpa went out 4 wheeling that morning before breakfast and by the look of the jeep they had fun.
Another reason we decided to go to Echo was that Tyler had a birthday party on Saturday where he got to go indoor skydiving so we brought him home on Saturday to go to his party and Troy and I did a little yard work and took some nice hot showers. Tyler had a blast and we headed back up the mountain. Grandpa cooked ribs all day and I believe that was Brieanna’s highlight of the trip. She is one big rib eater and I am not sure that anyone would believe me unless you saw her eat them. She is also not afraid to get down and dirty eating them. I just wish I would have thought to take a picture of all the rib bones she ate.

We took the tent down and headed home so that we could all get a good night sleep. Headed back up there Sunday morning and played phase 10 with Trent and Becky then we decided to drive into Park City. We ate lunch at Park City Pizza and Pasta and then walked around and window shopped. It was a lot of fun we enjoyed the beautiful scenery
Before we left to come home, we went back to the camp and visited for a while and played horseshoes (the girls won, not with my help though).

Park City Fun!

Monday we got up and did some more yard work. My goal was to pull out a dead bush in the corner of the yard and then cut down our sad little pine tree. All last year Troy kept saying that it was going to come back, not to worry, but finally we had to face reality and accept that it was dead to the bone.

Kynleigh standing up!

Our next goal for the long weekend was to go and see a movie. Brieanna has wanted to see 17 Again for a long time so we pulled it up on Fandango and headed down to the Gateway in Salt Lake. When we arrived to buy the tickets we were informed that Fandango was wrong, they did not have the movie we wanted and no one could agree on any other movie so we had lunch, walked around and then headed back to Layton where it was showing as well. We were hoping to get the 3:00 show. It wasn’t showing till 7:15 that night, so we ended up going to blockbuster and renting a couple of movies to watch. We had a great weekend even with a few mishaps and had fun spending it together.

Wig from Build a Bear Workshop

I am grateful for my country and for all those who have died so that I can enjoy the freedoms that I take for granted most of the time.

Cell Phone

What happens when a cell phone tries to cross to the other side of the road?













A big pile of garbage and a sad boy.

Miracles Really Do Happen!

This post is not in any way to embarrass Tyler, however I had to document that he actually SLEPT IN HIS OWN ROOM last night. It has been a LONG 8-9 months. For those who may be saying to themselves where has he been sleeping or what am I talking about. Here is a little recap of the past several years.
I think it all started around the whole Elizabeth Smart abduction. He has always been so scared that someone will take him while he is sleeping. Over the years we have done this deal where if he sleeps in his own room on school nights he could sleep in our room on the floor in his sleeping bag on the weekends. (I kicked him out of my bed a LONG time ago) Well this last summer, we made the mistake of letting him sleep on our floor all summer (his excuse was that he didn’t have school). The only problem was that when school started, I could not get him back in his room. With no privacy in our room it is a miracle in and of itself that Kynleigh was conceived. We have tried paying him, bribing him. You name it and we have tried it. Everyone kept telling me that he would grow out of it, don’t worry. Well I finally got to the point where I was DONE with him sleeping in our room. So I told him that he could sleep anywhere else, living room etc. but not in my room. He began sleeping in the upstairs family room that lasted for quite some time. Then Jasper had her puppies and I had to get up in the middle of the night to feed them every few hours and I made Tyler move downstairs to sleep so that I would not wake him up while I was doing my thing. So now we have him in the downstairs family room. (oh so close to his room, yet so far away) He has now been there for almost a month.
Here is where I feel like a genius! (See my previous post about Tyler’s new love for air soft gun wars.) I bribed him with equipment. Yes the bribe worked. This weekend I now have to go and buy him an extra cartridge, more co2 and some ammunition. I am just so excited that he actually bought in to the bribe. I am just hoping that he stays in his room. The deal is that if he stops sleeping in his room, the equipment is returned to me.
So with a pat on my back, and Tyler’s, I have had a big smile on my face all day.

The Alphabet Game

the alphabet game

My mother-in-law was playing this game that she saw on a blog that she saw on a blog and so on. I thought I would give it a try. Her assignment was to do the letter of my first name.
I have to take the letter “C” and come up with 10 things that I am thankful for. If you want to play, pick the letter of your first name and see what you come up with.

1. Cash – This is something that I think we all wish we had more of but I am grateful for the little that I do have

2. Country – I am very grateful for my country and the fact that I can make my own Choices even if they are the wrong ones.

3. Cars – I am so glad that I was born when I was. I would not have made a good pioneer walking everywhere I go (I might be a little thinner though)

4. Cell Phones – Yes I am one of those that can’t live without my cell phone. I am not sure what we did without them a few years ago. (Computers could fit into this category as well.)

5. Cheap Clothes – As many of you know that I am a very cheap person (maybe because the fact that I don’t have much of the previously mentioned cash) but I am grateful for clothes. I could not imagine walking around without any on. (Troy might like that as well as my cleavage)

6. Chocolate / Candy – What would life be like for us women without chocolate (not dark for me). I was spoiled when I was working at Doppelmayr CTEC because I would get the real stuff from Europe so often.

7. Change – I have always enjoyed change, whether it is with church callings, moving (I am over that one) hair styles, moving my furniture around etc. You get the picture. I think change is good for you and good for the soul.

8. Cuddling with my Children – I love my children and don’t know what I would do without any of them and I especially enjoy when they stop for 2 seconds to cuddle with me. Those opportunities are far and few between with Tyler now, maybe that is why we have Kynleigh to make up for him. Brieanna I still have most of the time as well.

9. Clean – I love a clean house. Mine may not be clean all the time but what a satisfying feeling when it is. There are parts, however that I have almost given up on and that is: my laundry room, Brieanna’s room and Tyler’s closet.

10. Christ/Church – Last but probably the most important thing in my life. Christ is the perfect example I turn to when I have no idea what to do in life. What a wonderful feeling to be loved unconditionally and know that He died for ME..

Other words I thought of were Cleaver/creative I am so far from being cleaver or creative, but I love look at the blogs of those that are. Couches are great for cuddling watching TV, laying down, reading books etc. Clinique (that my mom buys me), and clouds that we tried to find shapes and pictures in as kids.

Tyler's New Past-Time

Tyler has had 2 air soft guns for quite some time now. It has just been recently though that he and some of his friends get together and have these little wars. It is so serious that this last month he bought a co2 powered gun with his money he earned with the paper route. He has used up the co2 pretty quickly though, that part doesn't last too long. It is kind of freaky looking at these pictures. I just hope none of these boys grow up and do something stupid with the practice they had at my house. :)

His hideout behind the garbage can


Checking out the enemy


Reloading time

Kylneigh 5 months

Okay, I did not write about Kynleigh in the last blog, I think she deserves her very own post. Even though these are pictures I took when she was 5 months, she will now be 6 months next week (shows you how behind I am).

My sweet little angel, there is so much she does that just makes us laugh and smile. Things she is doing: I have to be extra careful now when I make her bottles. She will grab at it and several times I have spilt the sacred mixture (I say sacred just because it costs so darn much so we treat it like it is scared in our household) If she is really hungry, she will have the bottle in her hands and in her mouth before I get to our feeding spot. She is learning to grab at her toys and holds onto them for quite a while now. She loves it when her dad undresses her for her bath. He gets her laughing so hard it drawes everyone in earshot to come and peek. She doesn't like church too much, Troy has a different reason, but mine is that it is in the middle of her good nap time (1-4). I am lucky if I get half of a R.S. lesson. I am always in the hall with her screaming (which she doesn't do very often) Troy has her during sacrament meeting and Sunday school. She is not rolling over yet, but I expect it any day, she is so close. Her stomach muscles are getting strong and she will sit up for a few seconds before she falls over. She loves to be propped up in the recliner in our room with the TV on (She is defiantly Troy's daughter).

Here she is asleep in her favorite chair

When we take her to the store, we now prop her in the shopping cart and she loves to see where she is going and what is going on around her. She loves to dance with you and when you sing to her, she will start to sing with you. She is now pulling her headbands off and is drooling like no other. If I could use her drool for food storage, we would be set for a year.

This is one of her favorite toys to play with on the floor. (Thank you Emma)

Her famous pout (I did not quite get the whole bottom lip poking out though)