After I arrived home from St. Louis in August I tried to settle in and get a good routine going. Not sure it's worked too well but we sure love being in Kansas with family. It's fun to be back and taking advantage of my mother's many many talents. If you know my Mother you know I am (unfortunately) nothing like her. She does everything and she does everything so well! She's an artist and growing up I never took advantage of that sweet skill. I am now! She's teaching me some cool things and I will show some finished products after Christmas. It is so unfortunate that when I was in High School I was just too busy with pointless things to learn valuable skills I'd use forever. I'm lucky enough to have a little time to learn now!
Kade has been so happy running around the yard and neighborhood. He follows Ryan and Tayler everywhere. 99 percent of the time he's shoeless and 50 percent of the time shirtless. Awesome huh! A lot of time he asks how old Ryan or Tayler is and after I answer he promptly tells me he is 15 too. Not even joking, I think he really thinks he is 15! I do love having built in babysitters but yikes for acting 15 when you're really only 4. One day as we took a walk around the pond, he was on his bike & I was pushing Bree. I told Kade to stop and walk his bike down the hill because at that point he wasn't the greatest at using his brakes. He listened. Two second later he hops back on his bike at the bottom of the hill and sure enough, rode straight into the pond, crashed and laid there tangled in his bike as I was laughing my head off! So hilarious! I was worried about the hill and didn't think a thing about the rest of the walk.
Kade has been so happy running around the yard and neighborhood. He follows Ryan and Tayler everywhere. 99 percent of the time he's shoeless and 50 percent of the time shirtless. Awesome huh! A lot of time he asks how old Ryan or Tayler is and after I answer he promptly tells me he is 15 too. Not even joking, I think he really thinks he is 15! I do love having built in babysitters but yikes for acting 15 when you're really only 4. One day as we took a walk around the pond, he was on his bike & I was pushing Bree. I told Kade to stop and walk his bike down the hill because at that point he wasn't the greatest at using his brakes. He listened. Two second later he hops back on his bike at the bottom of the hill and sure enough, rode straight into the pond, crashed and laid there tangled in his bike as I was laughing my head off! So hilarious! I was worried about the hill and didn't think a thing about the rest of the walk.
Bree is our sweet sweet girl. I want to kiss and squeeze her every second. The best part is that she lets me! Everyone deserves one little girl like her. Not a sign of the terrible two's in her body. She talks like she's 5. Big huge and very clear sentences. She shocks everyone when they hear her talk. Maybe it's the fact that she's still pretty hairless and looks so young. She says the most hilarious things. She dances like crazy and loves music. The second she hears a beat she starts shaking it! She begs the boys to have a dance party with her and they never say no. My parents have a statue of Emma & Joseph Smith dancing, she loves it and I heard her talking to "them," as I started listening she was asking them if they wanted to have a dance party! It only made sense, they were already dancing!
The rest of August passed quickly and before we knew it Mike was home for a visit. We took Kade to the Monster Truck show and had an early birthday party for Mike. We set the camera timer up and loved jumping and taking silly pictures. We were laughing so hard and when I took my camera in Mike wanted to know why. I've never had him ask for more pictures so I brought it out and we jumped some more. So goofy (:
September starts birthday season around our house. Mike first, Kade two weeks later then Bree the first week of October. We had great birthday's and loved celebrating with family around! The family who couldn't make it in person joined us on a phone or computer thanks to the amazing Google+. Kade's birthday cake request was a dough cake and quite honestly I loved the request and hope it becomes the request every year! I couldn't give him an entire cake made of dough and feel like a good mother so I put a ball of dough in a muffin cup & stuck a few candles on top. The rest of us enjoyed delicious cookie monsters. Easiest 'cake' yet!
Bree was so fun to watch on her birthday! The first thing she opened was a little porcelain doll that was mine when I was younger, I kept telling her to open something different because it wasn't fun & she couldn't really play with it. I was totally insistant that she not open it until later but it was the one she wanted so badly. As soon as she opened it she turned her head sideways and said, awwww. 
She gave it a hug and held it tight to her chest. My mom and I cracked up so hard because seriously, I was worried she would break it. She proved me wrong. Grandma Steel got Bree her first dolly and made a cute blanket to go along with her. I wish I could watch that moment over and over because it was so sweet. She LOVED her the second she unwrapped her. She wrapped Dotty in the blanket and tried giving her a bottle. I totally believe girls are born with their ability to nurture because up to that point she had only played with boy toys. 
She gave it a hug and held it tight to her chest. My mom and I cracked up so hard because seriously, I was worried she would break it. She proved me wrong. Grandma Steel got Bree her first dolly and made a cute blanket to go along with her. I wish I could watch that moment over and over because it was so sweet. She LOVED her the second she unwrapped her. She wrapped Dotty in the blanket and tried giving her a bottle. I totally believe girls are born with their ability to nurture because up to that point she had only played with boy toys. 
In October the kids and I traveled to Texas to visit Mike. Thank you Texas for officially starting our love for horses. The kids & I have always had a fascination for them but now...we're in love and Mike joined us. :) We loved and explored two different areas in Texas but nearly the only thing I remember are the horses. For Halloween Kade was a chicken and Bree was a Lamb. Cutest costumes ever and I'll probably use them again year after year cause they were so adorable & easy. They even made the newspaper from the night we attended Boo at the Zoo (: For the Church Halloween party I was a pig, Ryan was a cow and Tayler was a horse. Grandma & Grandpa of course were cute little farmers.
November brings us to Mike's "off month" and so we headed for California. Mike & I enjoyed a weekend in San Francisco. I witnessed "occupy San Francisco" and can I just say that I was scarred for life. I thought walking fully naked down a road was indecent exposure but not in San Fran. Sick. We went to take Dallin & Destiny to Lombardi street and dearly died laughing as we climbed the back side of that steep steep street in a stick-shift car. The bumper to bumper traffic made us nervous to roll backwards into the car behind us so every time we took off we burned serious rubber then immediately had to slam on the brakes! The car started smoking & smelling, people were looking at us wondering what on earth was going on. Eventually the car behind us caught on and stayed a good 2o feet back! It was absolutely hilarious!! Needless to say our stick-shift skills were a bit rusty but it made for one fun trip! The rest of November we enjoyed Mike's family and loved being with everyone at the cabin for Thanksgiving.
December brings us to Mike's last rotation in Denver. December flew by (doesn't it always) because of the holiday and packing to move back to Florida. We spent Christmas in Kansas where we enjoyed a little time with Jake. (He graduated from BYU-Idaho and was on his way to Boston where he has a job with the Romney campaign.) Christmas was wonderful! We spent the next week on the ski hill (Wolf Creek) with my parents, Ryan, Tayler and my uncle Steve & his family. We rang in the new year playing a new game to us, Wits & Wagers & watching a snowmobile and dirt bike make some new world record long distance jump. Good times. I sure miss skiing and getting back on the hill was pure bliss. One day I'll live close to snow...and 'close' is a relative term but I'll take what I can get. Mike studied like mad that week, as he had been doing for a long time but now it was crunch time. He took boards part 2, Friday, January 6th. We were packed and headed for Texas on Wednesday the 11th. Mike had interviews the rest of that week in Texas and by Saturday the 14th we were on the road again. Florida or Bust!! We pulled into Florida Monday morning moved into our new place and Mike started School Tuesday the 17th. A new semester means the LAST and FINAL semester of school EVER. That makes me totally nervous for the "real world" but I'll save that discussion for another time. Those crazy first weeks of January are past and I feel like the hard part it over. Mike's the one who does all the hard work anyway but man am I glad for his sake it's over! That pretty much brings us up to speed.
We're here, we're happy and life is so so good.
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