I have NO more excuses now!! Here are some ACTUAL pics from Christmas - don't go into shock!

Yes! I am SO excited! I bought a Canon Rebel XT from one of my photographer friends since she is upgrading. Ironically, its the same camera my dad bought 3 years ago - the same in EVERY WAY! So we had fun talking shop, and he taught us everything he knows. Some of it is STILL over my head, but I have been reading the camera manual - something I usually try to avoid because it seems boring - upon my friend's suggestion.

And I have learned alot - but I can tell I have a LOT LOT LOT left to learn. I didn't get a lens CAP in the deal...or a camera CASE, or a UV filter thing....and the viewfinder is cracked...but I got a STINKING good deal so I don't mind those things. I have been admiring pics on my friends' blogs forever LUSTING after their technique and know how. Hopefully I will be able to join the ranks! Here is Christmas at my parents house :)

DIAGNOSED: Celiac Disease for our cute Kylie

So, this is a BIG contributer to the reason I feel like I am sort of drowning in my own life! BIG BREATH:

Kylie has Celiac Disease. We took her in for her 18 month appointment to a new Pediatrician. SO MUCH BETTER than the last pediatrician who made me feel that the reason Kylie wasn't gaining weight was because I was feeding her a "low fat diet" - and I needed to put butter and oil on everything she ate.

So THIS pediatrician was great - he listened to her history, what she was allergic to, symptoms, health concerns and told me it was CELIAC DISEASE.

What is CELIAC DISEASE? I was sort of familiar with it. When I got my AMA nutritional credits, they did have a VERY DRY speaker who addressed this. Sad to say, he was so dry I tended to nod off during his presentation.

But here is what it is:

Celiac disease is a digestive condition triggered by consumption of the protein gluten, which is found in bread, pasta, cookies, pizza crust and many other foods containing wheat, barley or rye. If you have celiac disease and eat foods containing gluten, an immune reaction occurs in your small intestine, causing damage to the surface of your small intestine and an inability to absorb certain nutrients.

Eventually, the decreased absorption of nutrients (malabsorption) that occurs with celiac disease can cause vitamin deficiencies that deprive your brain, peripheral nervous system, bones, liver and other organs of vital nourishment. This can lead to other illnesses and stunted growth in children.

So this is why Kylie is 18 months old and only 19 lbs. And get the runs whever she has wheat, gluten, or dairy.

She also has to get her thyroid checked.

So if you have been reading my blog in the past year you will know that I took Tyler to an NAET specialist (allergy elimination technique) to get rid of his allergy induced asthma. He is totally better, just can't have sugar yet.

At any rate, we took Kylie the next day to the NAET doctor who is FANTASTIC. She came up positive with neuroscensory muscle testing with CELIAC DISEASE, COLITIS and that the body was rejecting the process of producing GROWTH HORMONES.

So since this thing can lead to stunted development - physically, neurologically, physiologically, it is VERY good we are finding this out now.

She is on a VERY strict No gluten, yeast, wheat, dairy diet, and no canned foods. And she has to get on very concentrated probiotics, a digestive enzyme to eat away the mucus lining in her intestinal track/stomach, and D3 vitamin to start absorbing nutrients, and a growth hormone JUMP starter. If it sounds expensive, it IS.

But I am looking through the long range lens and getting my little cutie pie better. So far she is not affected mentally or with her motor skills. She is just VERY small in stature - still below "0" on the child tracking chart for weight. For height - she is like 10%.

So I feel lucky that we have the tools to reverse this thing - to treat the components creating the antibodies in her body through NAET, and then jumpstart her immune system, digestive track, and her growth hormones.

So while it seems like a pain, I really feel like I was prepared to handle this one, especially after Tyler.

RESURFACING FOR NEW MOON

Ok, I am resurfacing in my seemingly insanely busy life (I knew it would get this way once September hit!) to blog about going to see NEW MOON tonite.

Yes, I wanted to do the whole MIDNIGHT showing thing, but it did not work out with the other girls I am going with. We have been planning to go together for ONE YEAR!! Yes - and we also plan to go NEXT YEAR to Eclipse, which just got done filming 2 weeks ago.

And I did hear officially that the NEW MOON midnight showing ALONE brought in a little over 26 million, which is a record.

I have thoroughly enjoyed being a TWI-MOM as they call us. When I teach my fitness classes, at least 2 or 3 of the classes, we will work out to the twilight or New Moon soundtracks - then I have an excuse to see who the other twi-moms are!

I am a nerd, I know, but its FUN!! CANT WAIT TO SEE THE MOVIE - 10 o clock showing BABY!!

I AM SO IMPRESSED WITH MYSELF...

...I know, that is not something you admit about yourself. But as you can see from my last post, I have gotten into the whole coupon thing. AND, you might surmise that one of the reasons I have been poor to post is because I am going through what they call the "Coupon honeymoon."

Did you know there was such a thing? Well, it is true. This is what I did at MEIJER (like SuperTarget) the past two days:

14 Loaves of 100% Whole Wheat PEPPERIDGE FARMS Bread
75 Cans of soup: Cream of Chicken and Mushroom, Tomato and Chicken Noodle
12 AVACADOS
8 LBS of Honey Crisp Apples
1 Imitation Vanilla
1 Lindt Candy bar
1 container LIME JUICE

GRAND TOTAL: $11.65

Yes - I am pretty darn proud of that because its the ONLY way for me to do food storage. So w are set on bread for at least 2 months, Soup for the winter, Avacados for a week - GUACAMOLE anyone? And apples for 2 weeks - HONEY CRISP at that! YUM!

Anyway - if you break up my time into an hourly rate of what I had to do - it still was pretty darn good. If you go to Meier today - they still have the bread and soup deal :) Buy 5 cans of soup + PF bread and get $5 off next order. It rolls FOREVER. Pair it with a coupon - you will be under everytime and have to make up for the difference with some other food. LOVE IT!

I have entered the world of...CRAZY couponing!

I did not think I would. Yes, I learned from the "Grocery Guru" in Utah where he would get entire Thanksgiving dinners for $3.45 for $70 worth of food. But it seemed to confusing to try and figure out what was on sale and what I had coupons for, etc. So, I decided I didn't buy the stuff he talked about ANYWAY so why even put energy forth.

I heard the ladies in my ward (church) talking about getting ketchup for $.15 and toothbrushes for $.10 and thought - thats nice. Good for them.

But, I was totally WON over when they did a coupon event this Thursday at R.S. mtg. The girl talked about how she would never pay for soup, toothbrushes, deoderant, razors, feminine products, toothpaste, shampoo, granola bars, cereal AGAIN. She talked about how it was like a game and it was fun. It took her 2 hours a week to organize and check up on a couple website a couple times a day.

She showed how she organizes everything in a binder with baseball card holders, and every coupon in its correct section. Well, that didn't sound bad.
She talked about on some of her purchases, she actually had a NEGATIVE amount she owed and had to buy more things just to get it to a positive amount.

Well, since we just moved and have to REBUILD our food storage and replenish 72 kits, I thought - this is the PERFECT way to build a 2 year supply. I don't mind putting 2-3 hours in a week to beef up on 2 year supply of not just food, but also toiletries, toilet paper, etc, for FREE or for VERY LITTLE.

So, I DID IT. I started and had my first Walgreens experience taking advantage of the Register Rewards. I spent $25, got $23 in register rewards, plus another $5 off purchase of $30 good tomorrow and Wed, where I will get the same products I got today to get another $23 in register rewards and stock up on the sale items. What did I get - a REALLY good razor Brian needed, 2 bags Halls sugar free cough drops - (I usually need 1-2 bags in the winter) toothbrush, floss, raw almonds - 4 canisters). So tomorrow when I make this purchase, it should cost me $23 (which I get for FREE after register Rewards (RR), plus the $5 off, and I get $23 more RR, and I will stock up on chicken broth, tomato sauce and halloween goodies $7 worth for $2.

I also got free Panda express meal on Friday, and free Redbox code on Friday.

I was SO excited when I handed the guy at the register 12 coupons, although he didn't look at happy as me to initial all of them. I saved $10 on top of it all in coupons.

Here are the website I learned about - they are ADDICTIVE - but I love them. Some of them are Chicago based, but can give you an idea:

www.hip2save.com
www.mashupmom.com
www.hotcouponworld.com

I know there are others -but those guys tell you HOW to actually MAKE money by buying things you would get anyway.

I'm committed at least for a year to build up food storage. After that, we'll see :)

Anyone else do these CRAZY coupon deals?

Muscle woman...at the age of 6?!?

So, Brian's dad has been saying for the past two years that Brooke must have GREAT upper body strength because she literally "gallops" on all fours several times a day, and at breathtaking speeds - for a human. Of course, she completes her gallops across the yard with occasional jumps over an obstacle and at the end of her run, she whinnies and neighs with such accuracy, she has actually called live horses to her from across the pasture (I am not kidding!)

In fact, Brian's dad commented that he would put Brooke up against any kid her age in upper body strength - and she would beat them hands down.

Its not that I didn't BELIEVE that or think it might be true, but I just laughed at her galloping and let the comment wash off like water off a duck's back. I thought grandpa was exaggerating to make a point, and possibly biased because she is posterity.

Well, to my suprise, at gym class ALL the first graders had to do as many push ups and sit ups as they could in 1 minute. Many of the kids couldn't get any push ups, some girls got up to 5. A couple boys even got in the upper teens. One boy reached 20. And then Brooke comes and did 31 PUSH UPS, which beat out every class in the 1st grade. So I became a believer that galloping really DOES build great upper body strength.

Then the next day, was sit ups. Several kids did 10, some even 15. One boy got all the way up to 31. And Brooke came and did 34 SIT UPS! Well, apparently galloping also produces a very strong "core" so to speak. Who knew! ?!?!

I can feel a horse galloping movement coming on - Galloping is the new Yoga... or Galloping is the new Soccer...Galloping is the new karate - take your pick.
That Brooke is a Real Horse of a Girl!

It only took 9 years, but we FINALLY....

It only took 9 years, but we FINALLY....

GOT CABLE!! Well, U verse to be precise.

What crossed us over that dark line, you ask? Well, our TV converters (for analogue TVs) were no good in our new house and location unless we got a HUGE antennae. How did we know we needed a HUGE antennae for this? There is actually an antennae information website you go to that will tell you based on how far you live from a tower. We, my friends, are quite far it turns out.

The other thing? Based on my below post this should not surprise you, but I am SO excited about the BYU football team...that yes, it carried me over. Yes,watching ONLINE was plan B...but we got a FAB DEAL...we will get a DVR for FREE, and our whole entire phone + internet + cable bill will only be 14 dollars more than it is now which INCLUDES a DVR and INCLUDES all the ESPN (and other ones I think I will care about) channels. After 6 months, I told Brian it will go up $14 and we might have to be prepared to lower our channel status, or cancel, but at LEAST we will have 6 months. (I know, I feel SOOO cheap admitting that, but HEY...that is who we have to be right now!)

I am convinced we are the only people currently in our entire SUBDIVISION (fairly good sized) that does not have ANY SINGLE SOLITAIRY FORM of TV. Not channels, NADA, ZIP. We only watch movies...occasionally.

As I broke the news to Brian, I could literally FEEL him smiling on the other side of the phone, from EAR to EAR. He told me that was the last thing he expected me to say in a MILLION years when I said, "I have news." The only other thing he said that would have suprised him more..or as much...is if I said, " I am making cookies." If you know me relatively well, you would understand that. If you are still left wondering, go to my fitness blog "www.beautifulafterthebelly.blogspot.com".

ANYWAY, I feel like I am about to entire a whole new world...although I am lamenting a little teensy tiny bit that the house will be less "peaceful." At least I don't have to watch the dancing shows online with all their pixalated and fragmented frustrations!

09-09-09: It WAS golden!

A Golden BIRTHDAY, that is, for Tyler. Our little man is FOUR years old.

The day of his birthday, Brooke and I were rushing to leave the house to go to the bus stop, which is down the street. I asked if he wanted to come.

"No," he said, "I want to stay here with KoKo" (Kylianne).

So we left out the door, and OF COURSE, like always, Tyler changed his mind in 3 seconds and with fervent PASSION decided he MUST go with us to the bus stop.

We were already walking down the sidewalk, but I said, "OK, where's your shoes?"

I see him dissappear behind the front door, and then just as quickly he runs out the door again with something in his hand. He keeps running and then comes to a dead STOP on the driveway.

Well, time was of the essence because we have to walk for 2 minutes to get to the stop, and the bus was going to come ANY MINUTE.

I called loudly 40 feet away " Ok, put on your shoes!" And he continued to look distraught. I walked over to him and then I see he had only one single solitary shoe in his hand. I said distractedly, "Go get your other shoe, we HAVE to go!"

He started WAILING. I could see my neighbor 10 feet away washing his truck shaking his head to himself. I said, "Fine, I'll carry you!" So I started to carry him. I made it TWO feet and said, " There's NO way. You are too heavy. Tyler, you will just have to stay here."

I booked it with Brooke to catch the bus while I head LOUD WAILING filling up the neighborhood from where he was perched on the driveway. Other neighboors poked their heads our of their door to see the commotion.

Well, I decided I would walk with Brooke just until the road curves and then go back. But then Brooke and all the other kids (11 at her stop) all looked over at a little red figure running like FOREST GUMP down the road. He looked like a little red fire ant with little legs that went at lightening speed. Brooke shouted, "Mama, it's Tyler! He's running."

I just started giggling in spite of myself. The little goober ran all the way around the curb and down the rest of the road to the bus stop. He ran to Brooke and gave her hugs and signed "I LOVE YOU" which is our little tradition. I looked down at his feet and I noticed he had two matching shoes on his feet. He somehow in record time went back inside, found shoes, and rammed his feet inside them and took off.

What a kid! He wears his little heart on his sleeve - he's a very tender guy, even while ramming the play school bus into walls occasionally. We LOVE OUR GUY!!

BYU COUGARS DONE ME PROUD!

Did anyone watch that AWESOME game on Saturday night - BYU against Oklahoma?!?!?

Can I just say two words - NAILBITER and WOW.

I was in Cougar Heaven - well afterwards - and I was so "On pins and needles" DURING that I really literally almost couldn't take it.

So I was HOPING that we would get ranked 13 because not many teams below us - our ranking of 20 - lost. I checked the BCS ranking like....well, like a boy...checking Sunday night, Monday several times, early this morning, and finally at noon and I saw the BEAUTIFUL ranking of


(said with reverence) NINE!! (Brian is telling me me how turned on he is by me wanting to listen to the highlights and commentary as much as him - Yeah, TMI)

Yes - in the top 10. Since I am SO rusty with my sports rooting (BYU is the only team I get excited about...although while the Bulls were good back in the day, I rooted for them since I am from Chicago) my husband reminded me that we need to root for Oklahoma from here on out to make our win against them (number three ranked preseason) really MEANS something.

So the season is new, and I am SO jealous of people with SEASON TICKETS - MAn I miss those days!!! I will have to settle for watching on the laptop!

Anyone else getting Revved up for the season???????

ONLINE HOUSEWARMING!!

Welcome to our online housewarming. Since many of you can't come in person, we are bringing it to you. The only thing that prolonged this as long as it has was my procrastination in downloading pictures. But come have a look around!

This is the patio that Brian and I put in - stone pavers - I love it!
This is the square foot garden - the bare one you see is the newest addition. The other ones were so easy to maintain I built another one. The netting backs it up. There are 80 squares.
Note the Zuchinni is growing vertically - this is about 1 1/2 months ago.
This is the kids bathroom - I have since added white candlesticks but you get the basic idea.
This is our bathroom/closet - I love having it - it makes me feel like I live in a hotel.
We decided to still have the computer in our room - every place we lived we have done it. I guess old habits die hard...that and it looked better in here.
A more long range view of the room.
This is the view from the kitchen into the living room. Its nice and open - the way I like living rooms.
This is the island/thing that looks into the kitchen, dining room, and entryway.
Here is our kitchen - I love the cherry cabinets. Its the favorite color of cabinets we have ever had. I have since added other decor on the bar part - but thats the basic.
So, since we don't have a dining room table and wouldn't use it that much if we HAD one, we did a music room/library in the dining room. It makes everything seem so much more open. I will be adding more ikea components to the bookshelf - and upper area...someday...
Here is the entryway - I love the ikea bench by the door that rolls open and can hold about 50 pairs of shoes - lOVE IT!
Here is a view by the piano facing the living room and kitchen.

The kids were asleep while I took these, so I didn't get their rooms, I will post them later. I LOVE the way the color of paint for Brooke and Kylie's room turned out. And I found some great sports decor for Ty's room at Hobby Lobby at 90% off - I LOVE those sales.

And that concludes the tour. To fully appreciate - think of everything being stark white. Thanks to Brian's dad for painting, and to Brian for the many house projects you have helped me do (and for everyone that helped me unpack)! Took awhile for me to post - but I hope you liked how it turned out.

POOR KYLIANNE!!!

Our cute Kylianne has been in a pickle lately. She has not been able to gain weight or really grow much. Now that she is walking people think she must be like 8 months…rather than the 14 months that she is.

So what to do? The pediatrician’s advice? Put OIL and BUTTER on everything. The other problem? Constant diarrhea. What was the pediatrician’s solution – the brat diet: banana, applesauce, toast, and…whatever the r is (brain freeze).

No improvement. The girl has been BELOW “THE CHART” , like -10 or so for awhile. Her height is a decent 20%.

So, luckily we have the BEST doctor ever – that is super knowledgable about nutrition, and does allergy/sensitivity testing and TREATMENT (NAET).

So we had her tested – I was the surrogate tester. (so far) She is allergic to Milk/Dairy, Wheat, Gluten, Yeast, Vinegar, Cold, Candida, and something called “Mylocin” or something like that. That one is the corker. The other ones – no PROBLEM, since I went through all that with tyler.

The Mylocin one means that she can’t have any RAW fruits or veggies (which she loves), nothing from a can, even if I canned it (tomato sauce, beans) and nothing that was frozen (veggies, fruits, meats). So FOR NOW, until we get her treated for that, Cooking is going to be CREATIVE. I will essentially have to cook things special for her (2 separate meals 3 times a day). I usually cook her veggies and then give her egg, at this point, and rice, rice cakes, and rice crackers.

Also, since she can’t have anything “cold” because of her allergy (which I just read about in the Chicago trib in January), she has to drink everything warm, and her food needs to be room temp or warm. She is also on lactobacillus (all strains) and bifodobacterium (all strains) probiotics.

The goal? Solid stools with less frequency (now they are 4 to 5 times/day – not at ALL solid)

So, while all that seems a little overwhelming for the time being, I am SOOOOO glad to know what is going one. And if she has results with NAET like her Brother TYLER (was on 7 meds for asthma, now needs NO MEDS and RARELY has any problems.)

I really really thank everyday that my cousin Angelle told me about NAET!!! Thanks Angelle!

JULY WAS BLISSFUL!!

The one really really great thing about having a husband who is a teacher is the month of JULY!!

Even though I hardly ever see him, it feels like during the school year because of
*doing a 2nd Master's degree
*Bowling Coach
*(now) Elder's Quorum Presidency (church thing for those who are wondering...)
*working 2nd Job at T.R.
*Never ending staff and coaching meetings
*Me working on his "off" nights

So this month I feel like the we, the fam, had him all to ourselves, for ONCE!! It was Lovely!
So how did we choose to take advantage of this rarity?

*We went frisbee disc golfing about 2 or 3 times every week during the evening
*We watched Harry Potter, twice
*We went to Chinatown, Greektown, and the Cheesecake Factory in Downtown Chicago on
National Cheesecake Day (all cheesecakes 1/2 off!)
*We hung out with Brian's siblings who came to Chicago to visit - Mike and Corin and fam, and
Beth and Shawn and family
*We went to Navy Pier
*We went blueberry picking at Michigan City, IN (30 lbs this year at $1.50 /lb)
*We went to the beach MANY times
*We had TWO of our traditional "TEXAS ROADHOUSE STYLE FAMILY BBQs" and made THE
recipe of TO DIE FOR ribs
*We went to Brian's Grandma's funeral (she was an impressive 96!)
*We went miniature golfing - which I unfortunately BOMBED
*We spend many late nights playing Carcassone (like settler's of Catan). We realized playing too
many nights in a row is bad for our marriage
*We checked out movies from the library - ( "Out of Africa "to me seemed like the better version of "Australia", and I can't believe how different Meryl Streep looked!)
*We went to the neighborhood pool several times with the kids
*We went to IKEA as a family (ya gotta have ONE of those a year, I tell you!)
*We welcomed my youngest sister Sarah to stay with us for a few weeks, home from BYU-I.

So, July is gone, but MAN did I enjoy it. It felt like a party everyday.

What will August bring? My younger sister SUSIE is coming home from her NY NY-SOUTH
mission. We are on pins and needles!! GO SUSIE!

Now I see all the back to school sales, and I have to adjust my mind BACK to reality!!!!

9 YEARS OF...

So, these past 9 years have been AWESOME being married to Brian. He TRULY is the BEST most THOUGHTFUL husband...and Dad. He was so cute this morning. He let me sleep in and he got up with the kids. And when I woke up he walked into our room with a BIG GRIN on his face.

I should have suspected something, but sometimes he just does stuff like that, so I didn't think anything of it. After he GRINNED at me without blinking for about 60 seconds (I was doing some exercises on the ground) then he finally said, "I have somehthing for you..."

I was just expecting a card (handwritten), so I was SHOCKED when he gave me 15 ROSES. They were all red, and of course, beautiful, and TOTALLY UNEXPECTED.

Then he paused and said, "That's not all." He then gave me some of my favorite chocolate - 85% dark "Green and Black" chocolate (its VERY creamy!)

Then he paused again and said, "That's not all." He then gave me a VERY sweet card - he just gets better and better at them each year - I almost started crying.

Then he paused again and said, "That's not all." (STILL GRINNING) and he gives me the dvd of "Sense and Sensibility." which I had remarked to him like 7 months ago that I would really like to own that one. I have ALL the other Jane Austin movies - but not that one. And he remembered that little comment 7 months ago.

WHAT A MAN!! NINE years of marriage to him has DONE ME GOOD!!

How does it feel to lose 5 teeth in two weeks?

wa





Well, I have to hand it to her, Brooke has had quite the two weeks with losing her FIVE teeth. She REALLY did not want us NEAR her mouth. She would inform us that we could pull her 5 loose teeth "TOMORROW."

Well, of course, her whole mouth of lose teeth made her two front teeth cross over each other and look REALLY odd. The teeth would all bleed on a regular basis.

So, I pulled four of them when she thought I was going to give her hugs for a bump she got...and as MEAN as it sounds....

As I went to give her hugs better, since she was crying ANYWAY, and since she was not expecting it.... I took those opportunities to tug them. IS THAT TRULY DECEITFUL????

Then we clapped for her and made her try to feel really good about what just happened. It worked, especially when we got out the container for the tooth fairy. Luckily we had enough quarters laying around for FIVE teeth. She gets six quarters per tooth. I am sure that is REALLY cheap as far as tooth fairies are concerned...but she doesn't mind.

AND NOW??? We LOVE THE TOOTHLESS GRIN!!

I decided to do it = a SFG garden!

I admit, I haven’t done a REAL blog post in awhile. So I made myself sit down and post…with PICTURES even. So, here is one of the MANY and seemingly never ending project we have undertaken. Before Tami moved she came over and helped me build my first Square Foot Garden.

I have been literally SO excited to do a square foot garden ever since I read “The All New Square foot Gardening Book” which our garden group in the ward I moved away from were discussing. After reading the book I was so convinced that it was the WAY to go – no tilling, no weeding, big yield in small spaces, growing vertically, no bugs, rotation all built into it…SO I gave it a GO.

I felt like an Amazon women as I drilled into the 2 X 6 wood frames with deck screws (doesn’t take much does it?!) I put the frames on top of my grass, nailed on the weed cloth, and filled it with compost, vermiculite, perlite and peat moss. And then I spray painted electrical conduit and put that over rebar to create the vertical frames. Here it is:

My first grids I did were made of aluminum blinds and fell apart right away. So I bit the bullet and made wooden grids - I am really glad I did! Much more sturdy.

I will say, compared to previous gardening I have done I have been bored because there is literally almost nothing to do after the initial assembling and planting. Just some major pruning to the tomatoes to make them grow up the netting, and some tying of the zucchini plants to stakes to make them grow up netting.

I also made a garbage can compost bin to which I drilled about 120 holes. I put newspaper and kitchen scraps and roll the garbage can once a day (I am sure my neighbors think I am crazy) and whallah! I have compost in 5 weeks. Do I sound like a total gardening nerd?

Has anyone else tried this? Have you heard about it? What are your experiences with it?

LLAAA!!! (sung with vibrato) NEW MOON TRAILER!!

Hello people - I am REALLY living up my adolesence here, but here is the trailer link on Stephenie Meyer's website to the New Moon Trailer.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=58185785

It looks REALLY good.

Check out the eyes this time on the vampires - much more enhanced don't you think?

Rosalie looks MUCH better too.

What are your thoughts?!?!?!?

Kylie is 1! How did that happen?

The first month she was born seemed like it was pleasantly long. Now, all of a sudden she is ONE!!

I am a little wistful, but of course happy she is thriving. In Korea, they don't even have a baby shower til the baby is one because the mortality rate is so high. So the first birthday is a HUGE deal. As it should be.

Some cutities (yes I made that word up) about Kylie:

*She giggles and giggles with Tyler and Brooke, especially when its time to go to sleep at night.

*She can sign - and does so VERY proficiently - the words "all done" "milk" "yes" "bye, hi" "so big" "i love you"

*She can say "all done" "bye" "tyler" "button" "airplane" "grandma" "grandpa" "chicken(that was a new one today)" "car" "ball" "mama" "dada" "boouh(Brooke)" "no"

*She is an intensly fast crawler and a proficient stander, and does not see any reason to make any steps, since she can crawl at 10 mph.

*She sleeps 12 hours in a row at night - bless her soul!

*Kylie is only a bully to one person - her 10 1/2 mo. cousin Kaiya, who she insists on taking all of her possessions (toys, pacifier, etc).

*Kylie has a VERY TOOTHY grin. Probably more teeth at this age than my other kids had.

*She is ticklish in every muscle on her body, including her little buns, her back, her facial cheeks, right below her shoulders, her arms, her jaw, her feet, her legs - all over, her tummy.

*She does NOT care for sweet things, not even fruit that much. She LOVES veggies. One time Grandma Wayne gave her cake. She took a bite and looked very dissapointed. Then she reached for her carrot stick. She LOVE tomatoes, beans, lettuce (I know - I am surprised at that one), cucumbers, zucchini - literally EVERY vegetable. Meats she like just ok. Bananas - she prefers the peel to the fruit. Orange - she also prefers the peel to the fruit (which Ironically DO have the most Vit. C)

*Her favorite toy right now is a pirate ship.

*She loves to eat rocks out of our large living room plant pot.

*She reminds me of a faithful puppy, always innocently and obediently following me around without question and without whining, just faithfully and cheerfully. ..unless I change rooms more than 10 times in 1 minute, then she gets irritated.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our little girl and feel SOOO lucky to have her in our family!