The Holidays

Portland Temple

Its been quite a while since I last posted anything. Its crazy how once the holidays come, time just flies! We have been so blessed this year. It has been one amazing adventure. To start, I want to go back to the first part of November. We were able to go to the Portland temple for a fun family get away. It is so beautiful. I love how it is hidden in the gorgeous scenery of Oregon. The huge trees just make it even more beautiful. We had a great time and are hoping to go back more often then not. 

Kyle's little buddy. 

Thanksgiving was a blast. I was worried since we didn’t go back home for Thanksgiving what it was going to be like, but it turned out wonderful and we weren’t even home sick. We have an amazing ward and an even more amazing Relief Society President. She invited us to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family. It was fantastic and it felt like we were at home. That night her daughters, a friend of ours, and me went out black Friday shopping in Albany.  It was a ball! We started at Old Navy. I think we were all done shopping within a half hour, but the line to check out was around 2 hours long. Maybe not that long, but it wrapped around the store. Thankfully one of us got smart and hoped in line. Since the line wrapped around the store we shopped while in line. I think I spent more money while in line then I did out. It was so fun though and we had a great time. Plus, I learned what flogging is. Ha ha yeah, I’m kind of blonde and had no idea what that was. I just thought it was a funny word. 

December then came really fast. We were so busy doing all sorts of stuff that I look back on it and I don’t even know what we did. However, we did get a huge snow storm up here in Corvallis. I think they said we got 9 inches which is the most they got in over 20 years. It was pretty crazy! They don’t have snow plows here nor do they put salt down because it somehow kills the fish, so the roads were pure ice! There was over a dozen accidents on the road we live on. No matter what you did, your car was bound to slide. Schools got shut down for 5 days! I lived in Utah all my life and not once did I ever get a snow day. Lucky it melted before we flew home to Utah for Christmas.

Snow Storm in Corvallis

Pepsi Lights

Leaving for Utah

Christmas was quite amazing. It was a long trip and poor Kyle had enough of it by the 6th day. We did a ton of traveling. Its a 2 hour drive to the airport. Then we parked in Economy and took the shuttle to the airport. Caught our 1 hour and 45 minute flight. Then drove another hour up to Kamas where my parents live. We stayed in Kamas for 4 days and were able to go to the Shurtleff Christmas Party. For we all know that “You Are SOOOOO Smart For Being In The Shurtleff Family!” Got to love family parties :) I then got to visit my Grandma Herbert who lives in Sandy. While I was there I filmed her for an hour on her childhood memories. I have started to get into family history a bit. So it was fun learning about what she did as a little girl. Then on Sunday we took family pictures with my siblings and parents. After we had our own Christmas party where my parents got everyone nerf guns. We had a hug nerf gun fight in my brothers basement. It was a blast. My little niece Lucy kept yelling, “Don’t shoot Micki!” Because Micki is so fun to pick on, everyone was attacking her. However, she put up quite a fight. Lucy though was so worried about her. It was so fun and a party we’ll never forget. We didn’t do present this year for siblings and it was wonderful. Just spending a whole afternoon with each other was great. It was fun being with them and I realized how much I really do miss them. I am so blessed to have my siblings. 

My mom made shirts for the grandkids that said, "Grandpa's my favorite." But on the back it says, "When Grandma's not here!"

That Monday we headed down to Hurricane. We borrowed my mom’s FJ Cruiser. It was so nice of them to let us borrow a car. We then spent the week in Hurricane with all of Scott’s family. We also did family pictures down there on Christmas Eve. I think they turned out great. It was hard corridnating colors being so far away, but I think they turned out pretty good. We then had a great Christmas Eve watching a spiritual video on a Christmas Bell. Then it was Christmas. This is when it got hard.

Christmas Eve P.J.'s

Christmas in Hurricane 2013

I have always been so blessed in my life. My parents always gave us plenty on Christmas. Usually we would all get one big gift and then lots of little gifts like a family game, moives, socks, a new outfit, and some little toys. I want to follow in there footsteps, but this year I knew it was going to be different. We had just spent almost $600.00 on our flight, plus gas, parking our car at the airport, and other little expenses here and there. So we knew ahead of time that Christmas was going to be small. Scott and I decided not to give each other anything. Well kind of. We got Scott a coat for his birthday that falls on the 19th of December and then I made him an OSU blanket. On black Friday I bought me and outfit and then ordered some boots. So technically we did get something, but we did it before hand. For Kyle though, he did need some stuff. I had got him 2 toys at Kmart on black Friday that was buy one get one free, a white shirt and tie, and some PJ’s.  However, we were just going to get him some cars, books and a ball for when we were in Utah and we were both just fine with that.... Until Christmas Eve came. I kind of broke down. No one knew and I was feeling stupid for even feeling this way so I just kind of hid it, but in reality it really sucked seeing what we had for Kyle to open on Christmas morning. I knew he had 2 toys to open at home and I knew that he wouldn’t remember nor even understand what was going on, but it was still really hard. I wrapped a few cars individual to look like he had more and wrapped a shirt he had already wore that I got him. But in reality I felt really bad he didn’t have much to open on Christmas.

Papa reading the boys a book.

I know it sounds so selfish, but I really felt bad. However, something changed on Christmas morning. I went from self pity and feeling bad for my kid to feeling overwhelmed with love. Scott had talked to his siblings about not giving each other gifts, but it turns out they got us gifts. I was quite embarrssed at first and really stuggled with it because we didn’t get anyone anything since we didn’t think they were doing gifts. However, we were spoiled. Kyle ended up with a train, a minion, all sorts of cute outfits and clothes, books, toys, and more. Scott and I were also given many things. That Christmas morning I had a really hard time not crying at one point I almost lost it. Instead of feeling that amazing feeling of giving that I get every year, I got an amazing feeling of love, peace, and being truly humbled for those that gave to us. I won’t lie it was really hard. I love giving presents and looking at the person face. I love being able to hand then a beautiful present knowing that I got them something, but this year we couldn’t. I was shown so much love and was truly humbled. I know Christmas is about giving, but this Christmas it was about accepting the gifts that were given to me. I can’t really explain in words how I felt that day, but I know I will always remember it. 

We had a great time in Hurricane and was able to go visit Zions National Park. My mother-in-law was so kind and watched Kyle for us, which was a nice break since was had been quite a pill. We had a great time with Scott’s family and made lots of memorizes playing games and eating lots of delicious food (especially meat). I left Hurricane with a great sense of a different type of Christmas Spirit. 

The Overlook Hike

We then drove back up to Kamas where my sibling came to say there goodbyes to us. They were all so nice to have drove up to Kamas to see us. We then had a great dinner and hung out with each other more. After they all left, my parents then gave us our gifts from them. Again I felt the same way. I couldn’t believe what they were giving us. After we got ready for bed, I just laid awake for awhile thinking just how blessed I was. I have an amazing family on both sides. I have an amazing husband that works so hard and studys even harder, but always puts us first. We have amazing friends both in Utah and here in Corvallis. Even though we worry about finaces, we are truly blessed in the fact we are taking out little debt for a masters. And most importantly we have the gospel. Something that I will always be grateful for. I know Jesus Christ came to this earth and died for me and everyone else so that we could return back to our Heavenly Father again.  I am so grateful for the Christmas season. I will always remember this Christmas and how I learned that sometimes its about letting others give to you when you don’t have much to give back.

Kyle's Toys in Oregon

Thanks you everyone who made Christmas so wonderful! We are so grateful for all of you and your love and support. It has been one amazing year! We love you! 

Video Post

So I have found some fun little videos of Kyle on my phone and figure I would just share them. Some of them, well lets just say I can't believe I got it on camera. This first one is my favorite. Its so sad, but now that it's over I can't help but giggle. 

In this video, Kyle has a serious waddle. 

This video is of Kyle saying Thank You! Its kind of quite so listen up :) 

This next video is of Kyle playing hide and seek. Who would of thought that he would enjoy hiding in Scott's legs so much! P.S. Please ignore my high screechy voice. I don't know where that came from! 

This last video is just a little of the OSU marching band during half time. Just a little fun from when we went to the game. 

Thanks Goodness It's November

October was a pretty eventful month for us. Sadly it wasn’t the best month for Kyle though. It started out pretty rough for the little tike. He got his 1 year shots. He had to have 6 of them. He got 2 in each leg and 1 in each arm. Oh was it miserable! The next week we went on a walk and an acorn fell from a tree and hit him in the head. We then took him to the play ground where they have an old school spinning thing. We have done it a dozen times and he decided to randomly let go and rolled 6 inches on to cement. Then he fell off the bed twice which was random because he usually never gets near the edge. Then he had 2 teeth come through while we were at Silver Falls and the Pumpkin Patch. That lead to a good week without much sleep for anyone. The next week though was by far th worst of them all! 

So I am over our Saturday adventures. It usually depends on Scott’s homework load on whether we go do a big thing or just a small activity for the day. Well, Scott had a good chunk of homework so we just figured we would go on a small little hike and then come home. Well, I was being really lazy that day and should of gotten ready while Kyle was taking his morning nap, but instead I just sat around. So when Kyle woke up, I decided to hurry and straighten my hair so we would have cute pictures for the hike. Well, that was dumb! I just got down straightening my hair and was just spraying it when Kyle came in the bathroom. He has his own little drawer where we keep his bathroom stuff that he loves to empty out. Well, he pulled it out and then grabbed the cord of my straightener. I didn’t realize he had grabbed it until I heard it crash down. I threw the hair spray and grabbed the straightener. However, by then it had clamped Kyle’s hand and I could hear the sizzling of my poor baby’s skin. Within 2 seconds the straightener had fallen on his hand, burned him and I was then running cold water on him while trying not to cry. I have never felt so bad in my life. To see my poor little boy’s hand burned, that perfect skin, that perfect little hand just broke me. Scott came rushing in and I told him to run and get burn jel. As he left, I tried to keep Kyle distracted. I was running his hand under cold water every 5 minutes. I have also burned myself on the straightener and its miserable. As I realized we would need to go to an urgent care, I walked in my closet to change. After, I was holding Kyle and he was just whimpering in my arms. I decided to say a prayer. I said it out loud while holding my baby and the spirit was so strong. I asked my Heavenly Father to take Kyle’s pain away. I didn’t just asked but pleaded. I witnessed a miracle that day. About a 20 minutes later Kyle was calmed and back to normal despite his burned little hand. It didn’t seem to even bother him. We still took him to the doctors to see what they would suggest. It was a 2nd degree burn and they wrapped it up for us. Kyle didn’t even seem to mind that they were looking at it. He was hesitant, but he really didn’t mind. He was such a good boy. 

I feel like this month I finally got a little taste of what Heavenly Father feels. I wanted to take all of Kyle’s pain away. I wanted me to suffer and not him after all it was my fault. He is so pure and innocent and I just wanted it to happen to me and not him. I realized what our Heavenly Father must feel like every day. I’m sure it is so hard to see us suffer, but he knows we will grow from it.  I have become this super safety mom now, but I have learned so much as a parent and it has built my testimony as well. Even through the bad times, I feel those little tender mercies surround me. Like praying with Kyle every day or the fact that he says Jesus and points to his picture on the wall. Tonight I read him a book before bed and out of all the books he has, he grabbed the “I’m a Child of God” book. I know I have so much to work on as a parent. Every day I feel more and more under qualified, but then I see Kyle's cute face and I try harder.  

Here are some pictures of our Month in October. We really did have a pretty fun month exploring and having fun on a daily basis. October's weather has been breath taking. We try and get out every day and take advantage of the sunshine while it lasts. 

Indoor Sand Box (Don't worry I only let me take about a cup out)

Playing music at the Park

In Jail

Kyle doing a nice staddle 

 During October, Scott and I were able to attend the OSU vs. Stanford game. We have some amazing friends that watched Kyle for us while we went to the game. It was the first time in about 8 weeks that we were able to go out just the two of us. It was a great night. Even though OSU lost they put up a good fight and we had a great time!

Our ticket to OSU vs. Stanford

Date Night to the Game

Kyle Painting the Floor with Nail Polish that he broke open 

All by himself!

 Halloween was so much fun. Scott had a thing at this work where they have a little parade for all the little kids. All the offices bring candy and you walk around in a big line while people hand out candy and the kids get to show off their costumes. Kyle and I took the bus into OSU for the first time. He was so good. He loved riding the bus and not having to be in a car seat. He was way tired by the end because it was right during his nap time, but he was such a trooper.  Plus, we got to see Scott at work!

Our Minion 

Visiting Dad at Work for the Halloween Parade

Scott's Office

Kyle's friend (P.S. it doesn't say Overy, its the end of the word Discovery)

Happy Halloween! 

 So the hike we were suppose to do the day Kyle burned his hand, was Bald Hill. So a few weeks later, we attempted it again. This time I didn't straighten my hair. I actually didn't even do my hair in fear that something bad would happen. But we made it to the top and got to see the classic bench at the top. 

                                  Bench at the top of the hike

It was raining a bit, but Kyle didn't care. He wanted to see where we were going. A lady even called him a true Oregonian because he didn't care to get wet! 

So Beautiful!

Exploring Oregon

I can't believe we have already been here for 6 weeks! Life has flown by so fast. We are having such a wonderful time here. Scott and I decided since we are only here for 2 years, that we need to explore everything. We don't want to leave Oregon and wish we would of done more stuff. So we are trying to do something new every weekend. Even if it is a new trail or an hour worth of driving around. However, here is what we have done over the last 4 weeks. 

This first picture is Kyle having a play date with a little boy in our ward. We love play dates! I don't know if it is more for me or for him, but we love them!

Park in Timberhill: October 10th

Sunset Park: October 17th

Park at Oak Vale Apartments

These next few pictures are all of the parks we have been to recently. One thing that is neat about Corvallis is that there are so many parks! We probably go to the park 3 or 4 times a week. Especially since it has been so nice here the last few days. We got to get all the sunshine we can! We also go to this one park on 29th street, but there is so many kids there, that I think Kyle gets intimated by it. So he usually just watches the other kids instead of playing. So that is why we like to explore other parks. The best though is Arnold park has Beavers to ride. Go figure right! 

Arnold Park: October 2nd

Silver Falls State Park

                                 One of my favorite things that we have done here is go to the State Park called Silver Falls. It was about and hour and twenty minutes from Corvallis, but it was breath taking. We didn't get to do the 5 mile loop like we wanted to, but we got to see the 2 main falls. The big one is about 177 feet. That is the main one in the park. The lower falls is 93 feet. This summer we are planning on going back and camping one weekend. There was so much to see that we really didn't get to explore much. It didn't help that Kyle was super fussy too. It turned out that the poor little tike had 2 teeth coming in on the bottom. We discovered that Saturday evening, but for the most part he was a trooper. 

Lower Falls

Scott, Kyle and I at Silver Falls

                     
After Silver Falls, we wanted to continue our adventure of being true Oregonians. So on our way home, we stopped at the Davis Family Farm Pumpkin Patch. It was more expensive then what it said online, but it was still fun. The people there were extremely nice. The guy that was driving the tractor even had Scott and Kyle drive it out to the pumpkin patch. We really enjoyed our time there and found some amazing pumpkins. I have never been to a pumpkin patch before. If I went again, I would probably compare prices a little more, not do it on the same day as traveling to a State Park, and of course make sure Kyle isn't teething. Besides all that though, we really did have so much fun. The Jack Family also met us there, which made it even better too. All in all, it was a great weekend. 

Circle Path 

So almost every day Kyle and I go walking. There is this perfect little trail that we mostly go on every time we go. However, we have been exploring other trails for awhile now and the other morning decided to go back and walk on Circle Path (thats the trails name.) So we went at 9:00 which turned out to be way cold! However, as you can see, it was beautiful. The fall here is amazing. I love Utah fall, but it seems like it doesn't last very long because we will get one random snow storm and all the leaves will fall off. But here in Oregon, it seems to last longer. Fall is my favorite season and I just love looking at the beautiful different color leaves. Such an amazing sight! 









So these next two pictures I think are just adorable. Once Kyle got through those awful teething days, he was back to his good old self. He is such a happy little guy for the most part. This picture is him during breakfast. He loves milk as all kids do, but today he got a milk mustache and I just thought it was adorable. Got to love first time mom pictures! 






This picture was just us playing around in the leaves. We are actually just right inside out apartment complex and found all of these leaves. Kyle wasn't quite sure what to do with them, but he loved when I would throw them up in the air. He is such a cutie! He is getting so good at talking now too. When ever we will give him a cracker or toy, he always responds with "thank you!" Of course it sounds more like "dank do" but its so sweet that he knows what it means. He gets smarter every day I swear. He now also says the words: Go, Hey, Hi, Bye, More, Ya, No, Thank you, Mom, Dad, and the other day he said Belly when we were going over body parts. We also have been working on the word Jesus, but it hasn't quite stuck yet. He is so fun! 

Bucket List: Check!

So far we have now been here almost 2 weeks. I have already fallen in love with Corvallis. It is so beautiful here. Although everyone keeps saying that you pay a price by living in the rain for 9 months to look this beautiful, its still gorgeous. So far we have done some pretty fun stuff. I found a new trail this week beside the other one that I take. It truely is so beautiful and just in our backyard! Here are some pictures of the trails we have been on. I don’t think they have names, but they are just fun bike and running trails.

Trail practically in our backyard

Scott and I also got the chance of exploring Corvallis a little more. On Wednesday we decided to take a nice walk around Downtown. It is so fun down there with so many fun shops. We were able to find all sorts of awesome stuff. We even came upon another trail that goes along the water front. It was so neat and one day I will go and walk it. While we were walking around we came across this unique bar and restraunant. We could see 3 people talking in the corner by the window at a desk. As we stopped to check it out, we realized they were doing a news cast! It must be like a Beaver station because the restranunt was covered in Beaver stuff and it looked like a sports place. I think I might add that to my list of what to check out while we are here in Corvallis as well. Anyways, to say the least Corvallis is so pretty and we are slowly getting to know it better and better. I still have to use our GPS a lot, but not as much as I use to. Ha ha Slowly but surely :) 

So another thing that we just passed off on our bucket list was visiting the beach in Newport. On Sept. 21st we decided to make it a day and drive out to the beach. Its about a 45 minute drive, so not too bad. We were nervous it was going to rain on us the whole time since it was raining in Corvallis, but when we got to Newport it was cloudy, but didn’t rain which was nice. We took Kyle down to the water and walk around with him. He seemed to really like it. I know the sand wasn’t his favorite to sit in (nor was it mine because we got sand al over the car) but he warmed up to it really fast. He is at the point where he can’t walk yet, but wants to hold our fingers and try. Since he didn’t seem to want to crawl in the sand either, we just walked with him around. We even dipped his little feet in the water for a split second. Because it was still pretty cold and we were hungry, we decided to go find some sea food! We went out to a restaurants called Georgieo’s. It was really good! I had the pasta with the sea food and it was literally packed with Sea Food. Super yummy just a little bit spicy though. The sea food here isn’t very expenses compared to Utah. Probably because they don’t have to ship it anywhere. It was so yummy. 

Living it up at the beach in New Port

After lunch, we went and drove to Depoe. We didn’t get out in Depoe, but decided to do all the look out views. Because of the full moon the waves were just roaring! They were massive. The ocean really is so pretty, but I do have a fear of it. I don’t really have any desire to go out and swim, but its just memorizing to watch. It really is so fascinating to me. Of course when summer comes I’m sure we will go swim or try boogie boarding, but the Oregon Coast is definitely a cold beach. It is a gorgeous sight. I mean you got pine trees and a beach within the same 100 feet! It really is so fun and beautiful, just cold. 

Being here in Corvallis has sure opened our eyes to being outside of Utah. I was so nervous about making friends and having a hard time meeting people. This is another reason I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is like an instant family. Our Ward has been so welcoming and so loving towards us. We have already had dinner with several families, been invited to play games, and I have been able to make lots of friends. Kyle and I have been invited to several play groups which is so nice to get out of the house.  I am grateful for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm not sure what I would do without it. Even though we don't know a lot of people yet, I feel like I can rely on the gospel as a support system to get us through if/when hard times hit. Scott has met the members in his cohort and he talks about how some of them are having hard times right now. He said as they were doing some orientation things that he felt like he could solve their problems with teaching them the gospel. I know I not a great missionary especially in Utah, but I am hoping that while I am here, I will be better at sharing the light and truth with others. I hope that through Scott and my example of just being happy will make people ask why we are so happy? Praying for missionary moments I know can help us to, but I just feel like I have this extra excitement to spread the gospel here. I never thought I'd say this, but I really quite like living outside of Utah. I feel it will be so good for us. I'm glad that everything has worked out and that Heavenly Father has lead us here. 

 Such Beauty! The ocean really is so peaceful and so beautiful. Who would of though just plain old salt water could be so memorizing.