Book of Bryson

So, Bryson just started his own blog. I would highly recommend checking it out. Here's the link : http://bookofbryson.blogspot.com/ . He is very creative for a left-brained attorney! :)

Trip to Utah Part 2

As we drove into Salt Lake, we stopped to visit Grandma Tate. Bryson's parents came down for a couple days, too, so it was great to see them and have a little 4th of July picnic out back. The kids were very excited to see them, but they are very shy at first, so it always takes a bit for them to warm up to even grandparents sometimes.

Here is another reason for our trip to Utah. My sister, Jana, had her baby and blessed her on Sunday. Baby Kate is such a cutie! We enjoyed spending time with them and all of Brad's family, too.

And, here's another reason for our trip. Baby Johnny, Bryson's brother, Brad and Keriann had a little boy a couple months ago. We had a great time eating dinner with them and Bryson's mom, Julie, in Brad's backyard. We also got to visit with Brad and Keriann on Sunday after church. We are excited for them and their new adventure as parents!

Here is Bryson in a Nathan sandwich! This is one of our good friends and one of Bryson's former roommates from our BYU days. Nate is getting married in August! Yea! We are super excited for him. We got to meet his beautiful fiance, too. Good luck and congrats to them!!

Here is the most recent family picture of my side. Boy, we sure seem to be growing in numbers fast!

And here are the proud grandparents with all of their grandkids. Wow, five in the last 4 1/2 years. And from only 2 daugters so far!

I have to add how fast Kayla is growing. She's at the beginning stages of crawling, the kind of lift, hop and scoot around the floor. She gets up on to her hands and sometimes knees, but is still a little unsure of what to do.

Weekend in Utah Part l

We spent this last weekend in Utah visiting with family and friends. On Saturday, we went to Thanksgiving Point with the Rob and Dani, some friends that we made while Bryson was in law school. The kids all had a great time, along with the adults. :)

Here's Lily standing on the dinosaur scale. The first picture I took her head was straight, but I couldn't see her face because her hat was low, so, here is the picture where she lifted her head up. :)

Who can resist taking a picture in front of a shark like this? These are our friends, Rob, Dani, Liam and Lance with us. We had a great time with them at Thanksgiving Point, along with a traditional Cafe Rio lunch afterwards. Yummy. I wish we had one here!

At the end of the exhibit, there were two big sandbox areas where the kids could use the brushes to find buried bones. Nathan really enjoyed that part.

What a great shot! Bryson is the real photographer in our family. This is Nathan and Liam examining there stretched pennies stamped with a dinosaur outside the building .

We had a great time!! Thanks Rob and Dani!

Recent Stuff

Here's Kayla and her big bow that she wore on Sunday. Her head is just growing into the headband. She is growing up so fast! She has her bottom two teeth now and turned 8 months on June 30th.





She has moved on from rolling all over the floor to kind of scooting. She pushes up and then falls down and somehow covers ground that way. This is a rolling picture, though.






It's finally summer! We are consistently wearing shorts and t-shirts. In fact, I had to hide away all of Nathan's winter clothes. He was pretty upset. He came and told me that he was going to get all his short-sleeves and cut them up and throw them in the garbage. He does enjoy running through the sprinkler and playing in the water, though.

Lily's favorite saying lately seems to be, "Mommy, Nathan's not being obedient to me!!!" It get's her pretty upset when he doesn't do what she wants him to. It goes the other way around, too.

Kayla had just picked up a cheerio and put it in her mouth by herself for the first time and I caught that big proud smile after she did it. What a cutie. :)

Speaking of summer, it was at least a hundred degrees outside and this is how the kids were dressing up. Crazy. . .

We're headed down to Utah on the 4th for the weekend. My sister, Jana, is blessing her new baby and we are excited to spend time with family!

All dressed and ready to go

I took these pictures of the kids before church on Sunday. They turned out so cute that I had to post them!

I cut Lily's hair, too. It was just so light and wispy with one long section on top that kept shrinking. So, I just cut it all the same length so that hopefully it will get stronger and actually grow! I made her a little headband and she wore it all day, Sunday.


Yes! They are both smiling!

Bryson doesn't want too many pictures of our kids kissing, but I thought it was very cute!

It's a good thing that they are so cute!!

Where the green grass grows

So, before I get into the sod part of this post, I just wanted to say that I took Kayla in for her 6 month appointment this morning (although, she will be 7 months on Friday) and she is a whopping 12lbs 9 oz. She's in the 5th percentile for weight and 15th for height. And her 3-6 month clothes are starting to fit her better. I don't know how she stays so tiny. She is a very hearty eater! I've been making baby food in ice cube trays and she will eat 3-4 ice cubes of sweet potatoes or whatever, mixed with rice cereal AND a large bowl of applesauce or pears (like as much applesauce as I would dish up for myself, and today it was a whole pear pureed) for lunch and dinner. Plus,a large bowl of cereal for breakfast and nursing just as much as before she started eating solids. Just like Lily was, I guess. They will be grateful for that metabolism later in life. :) Kayla is rolling all over the floor and is always smiling and happy. What a great baby!


The kids and I were out for a walk on Friday morning and when we turned the corner back onto our street, the sod was just being unloaded from the truck. We were all very excited!! That's a lot of grass. Some of it was actually for our neighbor to do his section by his driveway.

Here are Nathan and Lily, excited to get grass in the backyard. When Nathan went to bed on Friday night, he put his clothes on and then his pajamas on top because he didn't want to miss laying sod. He wanted to be all ready in the morning so he could just take off his pj's and be ready to go! (On Saturday night as he was getting ready for bed, he informed us that it wasn't very comfortable to wear his clothes under his pajamas).

Bryson and I did the the other side of our driveway on Friday night. Bryson spent so much time preparing for sod that you'd think it was going to be a golf course! He did a great job! Here's a before picture . . .



After . . . (it was dark by the time we were done).


Nathan came rushing into our bedroom on Saturday morning at 6am ready to go! So, we were out bright and early doing last minute preparations on the yard. We had lots of help from many of our neighbors and friends in laying the sod. This is the side yard inside the fence. Before. . .

After. . .



The main part of the backyard. Before. . .

After . . .

Another view of the main part of the backyard. Before. . .

After . . .

These kids were anxious to start running through the sprinklers when it was all done! I don't think we will ever put our own yard in again! There're still a few more projects to get the backyard looking complete. We are going to start on those next!

Life goes on. . .

Well, it hasn't been a month yet and I am getting around to updating my blog! This is an improvement. Our biggest news is that the sod is ordered and it is coming TOMORROW! Yea! I just hope the weather cooperates. We have all Memorial Day weekend to get it in. Bryson has the yard prepared beyond perfection (although he wouldn't say that). He's been working so hard on it every night. This yard is going to be nicer than a golf course!

Kayla is so close to sitting up on her own. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! She rolls around all over the room and is the happiest little baby! Her smiles keep me sane during the day when all I hear is crying and whining. :)



Mr. Popeye, here, likes to eat spinach. He doesn't look all that thrilled about it, but trust me, he prefers it over any other vegetable AND he refused apples the other day and said he'd rather eat spinach. He's not even dipping it in Ranch! I will never say no to spinach! I told him that it would make him strong. Now everytime he eats it he asks me if it will make him as strong as Superman. :) Totally.


Taking time to smell the tulips. . .

That not the buzzing of a bee. . . it's Buzz!

Nathan was so excited to go on the Fathers and Sons campout last weekend. He has been talking about it for months! If we had anything else we were planning, he would ask if that was going to happen before of after he goes camping. The van is pretty loaded down. Not just for Bryson and Nathan for a quick overnight campout, but the Elders Quorum was in charge of making breakfast, so most of the stuff is coolers, food and campstoves.

Bryson and Nathan had a great time! Nathan's favorite part was roasting marshmallows.

I love angel food cake. So, I made one the other night and baked it in two bread pans. I guess I should have used three. . . An even better picture (you'll have to imagine this one) was of my oven the next day when I preheated it, forgetting that I hadn't cleaned it out yet, and all of the sudden when I looked over at it, huge flames were erupting from the bottom. Thank goodness for baking soda kept nearby and for the sheet my mom gave me for Christmas that goes on the bottom of the oven to make for easy cleaning. I wish I could say that's the first time that happened, but Nathan always reminds me of how the oven started on fire when I was baking apples pies at Thanksgiving. You have to know that I can't smell, because of allergies, and so the flames are my only cue as to what is happening in there!!

Well, this was our last week of our little group preschool. It was my week to teach and I have to say that it was quite the experience! These kids have energy like no other! They all look so sweet sitting nice and quiet on the blanket, but can you see the cookies in their hands. That's the key. We had a little cookie party for the end of preschool. It was a great group of moms and kids. Thanks everyone!