Our Trip to Utah! (Part 1)

Well, I'm finally getting a new post up! I had wanted to catch up on everything I missed putting up, but I finally decided that's what was keeping me away - Playing catch-up isn't that much fun. So, I'll just start back up with some more recent events!

Back at the end of August we made a trip out to Utah to visit family and to see our oldest nephew be baptized! I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures of that event! Unfortunately, since we had flown in late the night before his baptism, I was just too exhausted for my mind to work right.
When we landed, Kyle's dad was there waiting to pick us up at the airport and he gave us the bad news that Kyle's Grandma Bankhead had passed away a couple hours earlier. On the drive from the airport to his parents' house, Kyle was able to call the airline and change his return flight to a week later so that he would be able to stay long enough to be with his family and attend the funeral.
We spent several more days in St. George with Kyle's family. Layla and Kyler loved being with family (other than just Mom and Dad)!

We were even able to get a picture of all the (current) Jensen grandkids together! Man is it a lot of work to get 9 kids looking in the same direction all at once!

Kyler LOVED having other boys around to jump on and play rough with!

Layla and Kyler both got in on a fun pillow fight with Anthony and Jeffery!

They loved story-time with Grandpa Jensen!

Kyle's dad took us and Ben's family to see the model airplane flying field. Both kids loved it, but poor Kyler wasn't too sure what to do with all thosed giggly girls around! He just followed their lead most of the time.

And Layla had a blast with Ben's 2 oldest girls! The three of them were all born within a year of each other!

I think Kyler's favorite part was being spoiled by his Aunt Jill!

After a few fun and busy days in southern Utah, we went up north to Orem where we stayed with my parents. We were also able to head up to Logan to visit Kyle's little sister, Mindy for a day. Once again, I slacked on getting good pictures.

Then, after being away for just over a week, Kyle had to fly back home so he could get back to work. The kids and I were able to stick around for another 2 weeks after that. 

But, that will have to be another post.... 

Easter Egg Hunt at the Park

A few months ago I discovered a Yahoo Group called Space Coast Kids. They help provide for each other's needs and do misc. other things throughout the year. The weekend before Easter they had an Easter banquet at the park. We went and had a lot of fun!
After everyone had pretty much finished eating, the Easter Bunny came and took pictures with the kids. Layla was super excited and it was all I could do to get her to wait her turn! Kyler, however was not a fan of the Easter Bunny and wouldn't get close, even with Layla sitting between him and the bunny. 

 The Easter Bunny still gave him a sucker, which he took and promptly ran back to the table to eat. (Maybe it's time to teach him about taking candy from strangers?) He sat on the bench and focused on sucking on that sucker for at least 15 minutes!

After all the kids had a chance to get their pictures, the Easter Bunny gave out Easter Baskets that had been put together for all the kids (that RSVP'd) according to age and gender. Layla got a basket with a super cute stuffed rabbit that she absolutely loves along with a few other goodies and Kyler got a sand bucket and shovel filled with little goodies. They even had some baskets put together for any kids that didn't RSVP.
After all the kids had their baskets, they had an Easter Egg Hunt. They instructed the kids to only gather up to 10 eggs each so there would be enough for everyone. They also let the kids go in age groups, starting with the youngest. Kyler got out there and started picking up eggs and checking what was in each one.

If he didn't like what he found, he would put it back and move on to the next egg. When he found one he thought was a keeper, well, he kept it....

Actually, he tried to eat it, but Kyle was there to make him put it in his bucket and move on.
Layla loved the Easter Egg Hunt and had her eggs gathered in no time!

After the Easter Egg Hunt they even had a pinata for the kids to break. Kyler wasn't really interested in it, by that time he was getting tired and ready for a nap, but Layla was very excited. There were a lot of kids, so they lined them up by age so the younger ones could go first and were instructed to only hit it once so everyone would get at least one turn. When it came Layla's turn, I couldn't get the camera up fast enough, she ran right up there and started swinging the stick and grunting with each hit. I think she got 3 swings in before she heard us yelling for her to stop. We may have to get her in T-Ball, I was surprised at how good a swing she had!

It was a very fun day!
The following weekend (Easter weekend) the Primary had an Easter Egg Hunt at the church on Saturday morning before Conference (the first session doesn't start till noon on the east coast). Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but the kids had a blast there too!

Daddy's Little Pilots

Kyle was looking for a photo op for the kids one night so he pulled out his helmet and headphones and started snapping pictures. The kids aren't allowed to touch these things so it was very exciting for them!

Layla squints her eyes shut when she smiles on demand so here she is making an effort to keep her eyes open while she smiles.

Doesn't he just look like he was born to fly "hecockas"? (This is the best spelling I could come up with for how Kyler says hellicopter)

I need to get back on track!

So, I'm actually feeling a LOT better most of the time now, so it's about time I get back on track with this blog! I have lots of pictures to share, so I'll just start with the random miscellaneous ones:

This is probably my favorite pictures of Kyler right now! Maybe I'm just biased, but I think he is just too stinkin cute!

Our lawn mower wasn't working for a while (I have Kyle's dad to thank for getting it up and running again while they were here visiting!), so we had all these little purple flowers growing all over the backyard. Layla LOVED to go out and pick them to make bouquets for me. At one time I think we had four different vases or cups with bouquets of these flowers! In this picture, if you look really close you can see Layla's "Big Sister in Charge, giving instructions on how to pick flowers face".

Does anyone know where I can get a more masculine baby doll? Kyler loves babies right now so he's constantly getting hold of Layla's babies and rocking and singing to them!

If anyone knows how to get a video on here, I also have a cute video of him singing to one of the baby dolls, but I can't figure out how to get it on here.

  This isn't a particularly great picture of Layla with her hair undone and still in her jammies (which just happens to be one of my t-shirts from 1st grade, I have my baby brother to thank for that still being around!), but Layla gets awfully proud of the towers she builds and wanted to show this one off so bad that she brought it to me when I was on the computer one day! Carrying that wobbly thing across the hall from her room to the office was a pretty impressive accomplishment for this not-so-coordinated little girl!

Two words for this picture: Bubble Beards!

As a side-note, this picture also captures both of their "Cheese!" smiles; gotta love it! (Atleast Layla has finally figured out how to smile with her eyes open!)

When Layla was just under a year old I bought some finger paints, got her undressed and let her have at it! She loved it and got it all over herself, and we still have her painting hanging up in the kids' room. I finally got some paints for Kyler to give it a try and all he was interested in was playing with the tubes of paint. When he did finally start spreading it around on the paper, he just reached over and did it with the tips of his fingers then he rubbed it all over his hands like it was lotion. In the end, he ended up walking across the paper and ripping it up. Maybe we'll try again another day.

That's all I have time for right now, but there will be more to come soon. I promise!

Bethology

I haven't felt the greatest for the last month so I've slacked off on this blog, but I got tagged to do this post, so maybe it will get me back into the swing of things.

1. I love my family
2. I miss the mountains and the snow
3. I would scrapbook, bead, and sew all day if I could.
4. I hate being the center of attention
5. I am still a little bit afraid of the dark and I sleep with my cell phone under my pillow when Kyle's gone
6. I have the best husband! Since I've been so sick with this pregnancy he's taken over cooking, cleaning, laundry, and diapers when he's not at work!
7. Finding a good deal is exciting for me and I usually won't buy anything unless it's on sale or I have a good coupon for it
8. I love to cook (when I'm not pregnant)
9. A Symphony bar and a Coke are the perfect remedy for a bad day.
10. I love the gospel!
FOODOLOGY
What is your salad dressing of choice? Ranch or Thousand Island
What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Depends on what I'm in the mood for...but I've never been disappointed by Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill.....I've also been missing Los Hermanos lately.
What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Brownies and Peanut Butter Cups
What are your pizza toppings of choice? Sausage & Onions or Papa Johns Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Pizza - YUMMM!
What do you like to put on your toast? Butter and homemade Strawberry-Raspberry jam
TECHNOLOGY
How many televisions are in your house? 2
What color is your cell phone? Blue and Sliver
Are you computer savvy? not so much
BIOLOGY
Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right
Do you have any children that are left – handed? Not so far.
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Moles and Two children ( I think they took part of my brain with the 2 kids too.)
What was the last heavy item you lifted? Does Kyler count? If not, it was the box of food storage that we keep on top of the cabinets.
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Possibly when I was like 5 years old....I don't really remember exactly what happened.
BULLCRAPOLOGY
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? Probably not
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? Maybe just Beth, it would make legal documents so much easier since I don't think of myself as Mary. But I really like my full name so I'd probably just keep it anyway. I think Mary Elizabeth is pretty.
Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? Yes. There's a lot of things I would do for $1000.
DUMBOLOGY
How many pairs of flip flops do you own? um... lots - 6 that I can find right now, and that's after I recently had to retire 2 pairs.
Last person you talked to? Layla
Last person you hugged? Kyler right before I put him down for his nap.
FAVORITOLOGY
Season? In Florida: Spring. Anywhere else: Fall
Holiday? Christmas
Day of the week? Sunday, so nice and no work :)
Month? um. none
CURRENTOLOGY
Mood? Tired, unmotivated
What are you listening to? Layla entertaining herself in the other room.
What should you be doing right now? Dishes and Laundry
Current favorite TV Show: 24
Worrying about? Money, whether we can afford a bigger house when the baby comes, figuring out what we can get rid of so our house doesn't feel so cluttered
RANDOMOLOGY
First place you went this morning? the bathroom and then the kitchen
What’s the last movie you saw? Return to Me
Do you smile often? Usually
Sleeping Alone Tonight? No
OTHEROLOGY
Do you always answer your phone? No, I rarely make it to it in time.
It’s after ten o’clock in the evening and the phone rings. Who will it be? Don't usually get calls that late unless Kyle's working and it's him calling to let me know when he'll be home.
If you could change your eye color what would it be? I'm happy with my eye color
If you could have a body part altered, sucked or botoxed, which part would it be? So many to chose from...definitely my tummy, hips, and, thighs - they haven't been the same since I was pregnant with Layla
Do you own a digital camera? Yes
Do you have a pet? yes, a cat
Favorite Christmas song(s)? Jewel's O Holy Night
What’s on your wish list for your birthday? um.. that is really far away..... but I am in search of some cute yellow heels!
Can you do push ups? a few
What are you looking forward to? This weekend. Kyle has Friday off and it's General Conference, doesn't get much better than that!
Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Depends on the day, but probably more nervous.
Do you have an accent? Depends who you ask.
Do you cry easily? Not usually, but pregnancy hormones do me in.
Plans tomorrow? Change diapers, do laundry, do dishes, the usual.
Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Yes, but thank goodness for prayer, great family, and our Savior.
Name 3 things you bought today: I didn’t buy anything today, but yesterday I had Kyle pick up some bread, milk, and french bread on his way home from work.
Have you ever been given roses? Yes.
Current worry? Getting through this pregnancy without losing complete control of the house to the kids.
So, now I’m supposed to pass this award on to 7 people, but I'll just let anyone who would like to do it.

Happy Birthday Layla!

So, I may be a little late getting this post up, but we did celebrate her birthday on time.
And, boy did we ever celebrate!
I asked Layla what she wanted for her birthday dinner and after lots of "discussing" I finally convinced her that we could not have cake and ice cream for dinner. So, she chose to cook hot dogs outside.

 

So, we gathered dried up pine needles from the backyard (we've already gotten rid of at least 10 trash cans full of the things and we still have an abundant supply! I guess that's what happens when you have 7 pine trees in your backyard - but the shade in the summer is so worth it!) and Kyle filled the wagon with dead branches and wood from an empty lot near our house.

Layla wouldn't let me get a decent picture of her, but she LOVED cooking and eating dinner outside!

And Kyler loved the roasted marshmallow Kyle gave him (although I don't think he actually got any of it in his mouth!)

Earlier in the day, we took Layla to get a kitten for her birthday. (The real reason for the cat is for rodent patrol, but it worked out that we got him on Layla's birthday) She loves her little Mo-Mo and can be heard scolding him throughout the day telling him he "knows better than to" do whatever she has caught him doing.

Layla loved opening her presents! As she would get close to having each one unwrapped she would say over and over again, "I wonder what it is! I wonder what it is!"

Kyler also enjoyed helping with the present unwrapping, and surprisingly, Layla didn't mind!

  

After all the presents were opened, Layla was checking out the alphabet flashcards she had gotten and Kyler took the opportunity to play with the kitten.

 

I can't believe how much he loves that thing!

 

After Layla played with her toys for a little bit we sang to her and she blew out the candles on her pink pony cake.

It only took 6 blows to get the 4 candles blown out!

Happy 4th Birthday Layla! We love you!

Kyler and the Cake

Okay, so I just have a quick story to share! A few days ago I was on the computer checking my email and paying bills when Kyler walked into the room holding a plastic-wrapped plate of cake (which had been on the kitchen counter) in a bear hug. I promptly took it away and counted my many blessings that Kyle was the one who had wrapped it because he usually does a much more thorough job than I do.
Later that day, I had taken some pictures of Kyler and was looking through them on my camera when I came across lots of pictures that Layla had obviously taken (they were of random objects around the house and most of them were blurry). As I was deleting the many pictures she had snapped, (and once again counting my blessings, this time for digital cameras that I can delete unwanted pictures off of) I came across this one:

I paused on it, thinking what a cute picture it was of Kyler, even though I hadn't combed his hair for the day, I thought maybe I could crop it enough in Photoshop that you wouldn't be able to tell just how messy his hair is. Then, I went to the next picture:

 

And the next one:

  

(Please try to ignore the mess of things on the counter)

  There's really not much more that can be said at this point.

 Basically

 Kyler

 was caught in the act and there's solid proof that he did the deed himself and, other than not stopping him or telling me what he was doing, his sister had nothing to do with him getting the cake off the counter.

And what had been a forgotten memory from that morning now had a lot more humor to it. 

(At least for me it did...)

So, back to the pictures that were meant for this blog, this is my favorite one of the pictures that I took:

 This picture shows Kyler as he is now. My baby boy that is growing up way too fast. The baby boy that has drool dripping down his chin 90% of the time. The baby boy that doesn't let anything slow him down. The baby boy that doesn't let anything make him unhappy, at least not for too long (unless it's his momma taking away the cake that he's carrying around in a bear hug in hopes that he'll get a piece, then he gets pretty upset). The baby boy that probably isn't really a baby boy anymore since he's almost old enough to officially be in Nursery. (Just a side note for those who don't know I was recently called as Nursery Leader in our ward, so even though he's only barely 17 months old, Kyler gets to go to nursery every week.)

This is and will always be my baby boy!