May 2014

Kyle crying due to not feeling well.

May was a busy month for us. I was over the ward carnival at the beginning of May and although the stress of putting it on almost got to me the event was a big success.  We had a chili and pie contest, multiple carnival games, popcorn and cotton candy, and an egg throwing competition.  The chili and pie contest were a hit and the kids loved the games. We had a lot of non-members come which was really fun to have. Scott thought it would be funny to throw some cans of chili in a crockpot and enter it into the chili competition.  He added some hotdogs (gross) and bacon and called it good. Out of the 18 chilies entered into the competition Scott’s won the Most Creative Chili award.  Now he claims he is an award-winning cook.  

Poor Kyle and Scott didn’t get to enjoy much of the carnival though.  Kyle was running a fever of 103 and as you can imagine wasn’t in the best of moods.  Although I was worried about the little guy, I selfishly enjoy when he isn’t feeling well because he just wants to cuddle.  However, I would trade cuddle time for a healthy-happy boy anytime.    

Memorial Weekend we were going to go camping, but decided against it since we are going first of June. Instead we went to Newport and walked the historic bay front. We then found a great beach where we hung out and enjoyed the ocean.  Kyle didn’t like the water much.  Scott will claim that he was born that way but I still make the claim that it had a lot to do with Kyle’s daddy thinking it would be fun to act like the ocean surge was acid by running from it while screaming “don’t let it touch you, don’t let it touch you!”  Ha, from now on we will leave that game until our kids actually understand what is going on.  Later that night Scott showed off his amazing-husband skills and his manly-handy-man skills by building me shelves for our storage shed.  We spent Memorial Day buying bins and organizing our other closets.

Did I mention we are having another boy!  Scott is pretty excited.  Apparently his worst fear was having all girls and his second worst fear was having one boy and the rest girls.

Love you ALL!

Kalli  

April

April has been a fun month for us. Surprisingly it has been quite beautiful and sunny. As much as I complain about the rain, we have been blessed with some nice days as well. 

Kyle’s word-of-the-month in April was ‘bus’ or in his words “busth.”  I constantly find him in the window sill (aaahh) looking for the “busth.”  He even has memorized what the bus sounds like.  No matter where he is in the house, when the bus comes, he stops, points and says “busth.”  He kind of reminds me of that dog on the show ‘UP’ that is always pausing to say “squirrel!”

Out of everything we did in April, the Tulip festival has been my favorite. It was absolutely gorgeous—acres and acres of tulips of all different types and colors.  Kyle and Scott took their turn riding a cow-train and bouncing in a bouncy house (the two things that just thinking about wanted to make me hurl).  As you can imagine, like any toddler would, Kyle kept getting distracted by all the tulips.  The problem was that he didn’t want to ride in the stroller and wanted to spend use his new-found-freedom stepping on the flowers.  You can see how this was a problem.  Lucky for us we had brought his football.  Scott would tell Kyle to “go long” and on the word “hike” he would take off down the row laughing as Scott attempted to put the ball in front of him.  This distracted him enough so that we could make our way out of the tulip fields.   

Tulip Festival 2014

Easter Egg Hunt

Kyle preparing himself

Easter was also a blast. We took Kyle to his first Easter egg hunt at Avery Park the Saturday before Easter. He picked up one egg and was content but his competitive parents egged him on and he eventually understood that the idea was to pick up multiple eggs.  He wouldn’t let go of his first egg until we were done though.  Easter morning was a fun time for our little family.  Scott and I decided to get Kyle a mini-basketball hoop. He went crazy over it! He just kept on shooting his little basketball and by the end was panting.  When we finally pulled him away from it to have some breakfast he kept saying, “shoot!” For some reason, unknown to us, he loves basketball.  

Easter Morning

I introduced Kyle to watercolors this month.  Kyle was more interested in dipping his brush in the water than actually painting.  I realized that I have to watch the kid like a hawk after I turned to grab something and found him attempting to drink the watercolor water.   Kyle is also obsessed with “diggers” He loves playing with his dump truck and watching the construction trucks up the street. Bikes are also a new favorite as we watch dad every morning ride off to school and work. 

March Madness

Well it’s probably about time that I announce I’m pregnant.  Baby #2 is due October 14th, 2014.  We are pretty excited and nervous to be parents x 2. Although we were trying to get pregnant we were surprised by how fast it happened.  Let’s just say we were extremely blessed and surprised to find ourselves pregnant one week after taking out my I.U.D.  Scott was pretty proud of himself…

Kyle loves watching the ducks
on our walks

The first 15 weeks of my pregnancy were not fun. I spent the majority of my days nauseous and on the verge of letting it all go (which happened more often than not). I watched helplessly as my house became a disaster.  I did the best I could to venture out on occasion with Kyle but with the rain and my nausea we spent far too much time indoors.  By my second trimester both of us were going crazy.  Poor Scott did the cleaning, shopping, and caring for Kyle, all the while balancing graduate school, work, internship, and a church calling.  After about 15 weeks I finally began to feel better. 

Inside activity on another rainy day

Baby #2 has been different than Kyle ever was. With Kyle I exercised every day and was a Zumba instructor; I taught my last class less than a week before he was born.  However, because I have been so sick this pregnancy I am lucky to even get a walk in.  Good thing I have a toddler that keeps me on my toes.  I was great at not letting Kyle watch any TV for the first year and a half of his life.  However, once my nausea hit, my attempts of acting like the TV was another wall decoration went out the window.  Now if the kid would just sit down and watch a full movie like most normal children all would be well; the most we get in is fifteen minutes here and there.  

Historic Covered Bridge

New Furniture

Unfortunately, because of my pregnancy and Scott’s busy schedule, our family adventures have been limited.  One day when I was feeling better Scott took a break from studying and we ventured out to see a historic-covered bridge.  When the sun was out Kyle and I would also go to the park to play as much as possible.  One exciting thing that happened to us was us getting living room furniture.  I realize for many this might not seem very exciting, but after only having two Cabella’s camp chairs for furniture it was like Christmas and my birthday all rapped into one.  The best part was that    we found a lady who re-did her living room every year and wanted to get rid of a lot of furniture, besides two couches, we got an autumn, a lamp, a sitting chair, decorative pillows, and a Calvin Klein rug all for only $500.00. The Calvin Klein rug alone was worth $600.00 (it still had the tag on it).  Sadly, because we only had one truck, we had to leave the dining room kitchen set and a rocking chair behind.  It is amazing how much decent furniture can brighten one’s life.  

Awesome Bridge at Newport, OR

Scott giving us a tour at OSU

My favorite memory of the month was when my parents came to visit us. By then, I was feeling somewhat better.  Because they decided to drive vs. fly (advice to all, always fly), we only had a limited time with them.  I took them on a tour of OSU/Corvallis and a trip to the Oregon Coast.  In typical Oregon fashion it rained on us the whole time. 

Devil's Punch Bowl 

Kyle loved having them here, especially because his Grandpa played basketball with him.  He wanted to go home with them when they left; the poor kid misses them so much. I’d say the hardest thing about being in Oregon is being away from family. Scott and I have loved our time in Corvallis and have often said, if only we can move our families here…

 

Rain, Rain, Go Away

On a Walk near our House

February was an interesting month for our family. Scott was so busy with school and work that we didn’t get to really do a whole lot of weekend adventures. Plus, it is rainy season so that didn’t help either. Literally, it rains all the time! And when it finally stops we try to go outside to do something fun before it rains again. We were kind of just hermits for the month. At least thats what we felt like. We did do our regular things which are always fun. Like walks, playing at the park with friends, and going to sporting events. Even though its been kind of miserable we try to have fun.

OSU Gymnastics Meet

So about a week into February we were able to have a friend come and stay with us for a few days. He was interviewing at OSU for the same program that Scott is doing. Well, the day he was flying in, it started to snow. Now let me recap on last time it snowed in Corvallis. The city owns one plow which is normal since it rarely snows. However when it does snow, they don’t put their blade all the way down because they don’t want to ruin the roads. So it leave about an inch of ice on the roads. On top of that they don’t lay down salt either because it goes into the water and hurts the fish or something like that. So they don’t lay salt either! After being on a grounds crew for SUU for 2 years this just drives me crazy! Last time it did snow in Corvallis back in December, everything shut down for about 5 days because no one could get anywhere since it was so icy. Well, needless to say this friend of ours flew out and while on the plane, they cancelled everything! His interviews were cancelled, the 

Playing in the slow!

whole school, restaurants, ect. We felt so bad! We got about 15 inches of snow and every flight in Oregon was cancelled. He flew in on Thursday and tried to get home Saturday, but it got cancelled, Sunday, but it got cancelled, Monday and it got cancelled. Finally Tuesday came and he was able to get a flight out, that is after it was delayed. So since everything was closed down we couldn’t do much either. On Monday school did reopen and we took the bus in to go visit Scott at work and he had lunch with some of Scott’s classmates. We took a drive and almost got stuck about 3 or 4 times. Scott shoveled peoples sidewalks with a spade shovel. Oh man it was just one of those funny weekends. I did throw a Open Ceremony’s Party, but a lot of people couldn’t get out of their driveways, but a few did come. Eventually it did melt and we have seen snow since. (knock on wood). 

Kyle: 17 Months

The rest of February was pretty nice. It did rain a lot, but we were able to still go to some parks and of course play “bball” as Kyle calls it. This kid of ours loves basketball. He will play and play and play until I finally drag him home while he kicks and screams. He just loves to shoot even though he can barely throw it an inch, he still thinks its pretty darn cool. Kyle is now brave enough to go up the stairs at the play ground and down the slide by himself too. He has finally become quite fond of the slide. He likes to come down in all sorts of ways, but I really try to push the feet first part. He likes head first better though. Beside those things it was kind of a slow February, but being together as a family is what's important. Even if its bareing through a snow storm or watching Scott study day in and day out. Its family that gets us through. 

There weren't enough swings so we
just put them in together.
They actually stayed there for quite a while
too! 

Preparing himself for training in the skeleton!

Kyle wants to do everything his daddy does. 

January Adventures

So January seem to go on forever. It was quite a long month. Between getting back from Utah and moving, it just seem to drag on. If you read our last post  you probably already saw that we moved, but just in case... We moved. We were able to get into some cheaper housing that is bigger. We really like it and love our neighbors already.

McDonald Forest 

Staying warm

However, moving wasn’t the only thing we got to do this month. We went on some good exploring adventures. We went and checked out McDonald Forest. It was extremely cloudy and rainy that day so we just drove up there. The fog was quite nuts. We are excited to go and explore it for reals sometime soon.
We then went to Mary’s Peak. It is a really cool place. In just one spot you can see Mt. St. Helen, Mt. Hood, and a bunch of other famous mountains at the same time you can see the ocean. Its a pretty awesome place to go and check out on a clear day. It was also really cold that day, but we were able to still go and see everything. 

Mary's Peak

Another Saturday we went and played some soccer at a park called Cloverland. I’m sure I have posted pictures from it before, but its a fun park. Kyle and Scott had a great time digging in the dirt. 

Diggin' at Cloverland Park

 
  It has been quite nice weather throughout the month (February is another story) but we were able to go on some fun walks down to sunset park. Its a great park and it has lots a little trails that we like to go and explore on. 







Gymnastics season has finally started. Oh how we enjoy gymnastics meets. We have been able to go to two so far and both times have been great. OSU is one amazing team. They are just solid. I couldn’t help but giggle on some of the other teams floor routines. After being a gymnast for 8 years you find yourself critiquing the dances. No matter what though it is always so fun and we sure enjoy it. 



Last of all, Kyle and I have been working on his ABC’s,  If you haven’t seen the video already, well lets just say he really likes the letter B. He is getting so big. He can say over 25 works, knows most of his body parts, some colors, and he well attempts his ABC’s. We have some fun times together. However, this month he did have 4 teeth come in so that wasn’t too fun, but for the most part he is a pretty good kid. His favorite hobbies are to whine and cry. He thinks it is funny to also call me Nanny. However, despite his great hobbies, we sure do love the little tike.  He is quite funny and has such a fun personality. Kyle is now 17 months old. 

Moving ... Again!

Well, since I last posted we were living in the Oak Vale apartments, but now we are living in a beautiful townhome in a place call Camas Commons. Yes, you could say we are blessed! So lets start from the beginning.

Our new home! 

When Scott was first accepted to OSU we started looking for housing. I was on craigslist week after week searching. Some friends of ours also were going to OSU and told us about some housing they found when they came to visit known as Oak Vale Apartments. They were quite pricey, but it a nice neighborhood and well nice. We called and got on the waiting list. The next place I looked was for subsized housing. I wasn’t so sure about this option, but a friend recommended to just look. So I did. I found a place that we are currently living in. Its called Camas Commons. Turns out it is subsized through a private owner which makes me feel better. So I called back in April 2013 and got on the list. The manager then told me to call in November because it looked like a 9 month to a year waiting list. Turned out we got into Oak Vale apartments just in time. They called us first of August and said we would be able to move in end of August which was perfect since we were moving in the beginning of September, but Camas Commons was still on our mind. We moved in to Oak Vale, but like the manager said of Camas Commons I called back in November. I loved where we were and I absolutely loved our ward so I wasn’t so sure I wanted to call, but with finaces so tight I decided I better. Turns out we were near the top of the list. I gave her our new address and by the first of December we were next in line. We came over to the complex to do some paper work and to check out the place. Its quite amazing. Its a 3 bedroom townhome that is like a real house. We have an awesome neighbor who is just a sweetheart. It has great carpets (which is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves), a big kitchen with lots of space, washer and dryer hook ups, a back shed, storage under the stairs, 1 and a half bathrooms, a community center, play ground, basketball court, and a big huge grass everywhere for kids to play. We are only a half a mile from one of my favorite parks in Corvallis and near a fun pond where there are ducks. Its a great neighbor with lots of families. Again we are truly blessed! 

Our Kitchen

Living Room and Front Door

Needless to say, even though it was way hard to leave our ward, we moved. However, we have amazing friends still in our last ward that we continue to keep in contact with and hang out on a daily basis. We are excited to meet more friends and grow our circle. Moving is never fun whether its 3 states away or 3 miles, its still a pain. But with a help of a friend and member or our ward we didn’t have to rent a truck. We continued taking load after load for about 2 days since we just had our little camry. I did about 2 loads a day with Kyle, but he was kind of a pain to move stuff in and out with so we didn’t get much done. However, I had a friend watch him Friday and another Friend watch him Saturday which helped so much. We got a ton of cleaning done and loads done during that time. Through those few days we finally got everything in and organized. We are now living in a such a great place. The only thing is we live right by the road and it gets loud sometimes, but we are saving 220 a month for a bigger place so I can’t really complain to much :) We are so excited for our new place and can’t wait to show it to friends and family.