A Couple Videos

The big news this week is that The Office came back on. What a funny show. I forget how much we like it until we see it again. They didn't let us down. If you haven't seen it and don't want to know anything about it, skip to the next paragraph. I was a little disappointed that Ryan (the stinkin temp) was back on the show and not in prison. What a dork. The ending was good. We're so happy for PB&J.

I don't have any new pictures to put on this week. We usually load them on the computer every month. I think I can probably find something to put up. Oh, Katie put our home videos on the computer, so I will try that. One morning Adella came into the room and told me that she had dressed herself. I looked over at her and this is what she had. I think she wore it for at least part of the day for the next three days. It is her Cheetah Girl outfit. What cute girls I have!

I guess the other news of this week is that I got a new bike. The bike that I hauled all the way across the country ended up breaking the first time I touched it. I wasn't sure when we were going to be able to get a new one because of how much they cost. We checked for used ones, but they were either too small or in the same shape as mine. We ended up getting a refund from school for insurance, so we used a little bit of that to pay for it.

Before we got the refund we had found a bike that was the right size, style, and most importantly price. Well, when we went back to buy it, they didn't have it anymore. We checked several other stores with no luck. We finally checked a different Kmart (where we found the original bike) and they had one. When I pulled it out to look at it we noticed that the stickers on the one side were all tore up. It was regularly priced at $120, but was on sale for $109. When I took it up to the cashier I asked if they had one that was in better shape. She told me they didn't, so I asked for a discount. She told me to go get a tag from a bike that was $89. I couldn't find one, so she went back and got one that was priced at $79. So, we ended up getting the bike for 1/3 off! I don't know if I like the bike or the good deal better. It makes it a lot faster for getting to and from school.

Kayla has figured out how to crawl. She is now able to pull herself up on the furniture. She has even ventured to "walk" along it. Katie is convinced that she will be walking before Christmas. I guess that is possible. It's kind of funny that Kayla has started crawling so much earlier than Adella. Kayla is almost eight months and she has already started crawling. Adella was eleven months before she ever crawled. This video is Kayla trying to crawl. Isn't she cute? We just don't have any on the computer where she is actually crawling.

Well, that is about all this week. I'm excited to watch BSU play this Wednesday. The game is on ESPN, so I can watch it! I looked through the pictures and only found ones that are similar to ones I have already uploaded. Two videos are worth a lot of pictures, right? Have a great week!

We'll be Home for Christmas

So, I know it's pretty early to be talking about Christmas, but we are really excited. We are going to be going back to Idaho for Christmas!!! We didn't think we would be able to because it is so expensive to fly, and we're not about to drive almost 3000 miles across the country with two little girls. Katie's parents are using their credit card miles to buy us tickets to come home. Really they are using them to fly the girls home and we're tagging along, but that's OK.

So, let me explain the picture. I was looking through the pictures on the computer for something Christmasy, like a Christmas tree. Well, I found this one from Christmas two years ago. My dad has this sweater that he wears every Christmas. We always used to make fun of him because we thought it was ugly. Now we all love it! This is another cute picture I found. Adella loves to "help" me put up the lights. It was always a tradition in our family to turn off all the lights in the house, turn on the Christmas tree lights and just watch them. I'm glad to see that tradition will not be lost.

Hopefully this will be a new tradition with Katie's family. They have a little chocolate fountain that the kids (and adults) love. These are from last winter. Katie's sister Emily and brother Sam are in the other picture. I'm sure they will be glad that I put a picture of them stuffing thier faces on here for the whole world to see (the world that reads this blog at least).

Well, enough about Christmas (for now). Kayla has started to crawl this week. She has been scooting all over the place, but this past week we have seen her several times on her hands and knees crawling! She normally only does it when we aren't looking. We keep trying to get it on video, but every time we get out the video camera she goes back to scooting. Today she has been crawling a lot, so maybe the scooting days are behind her.

A Fun Week

This week has been a pretty fun week for our family. First, let me give a little bit of background. When Katie, Adella, Kayla, and my mom got down here, I was showing them around our new house. Katie noticed that there was a nest in our front garden area with eggs in it. At first Adella was convinced that they were alligator eggs and that we would have pet alligators when they hatched. It turns out that they are Muscovy ducks, they are all over down here. Well, we didn't think they were going to hatch because we never saw the mother duck for about the first week we were here. I looked online to see how long it would be before they hatched. We figured that if they were laid the day we noticed them they should have hatched on September 1st or 2nd. Well, those days came and no hatching. We had given up hope that they would hatch. When I got home from school on Monday, Adella was so excited to show me the new ducks! Five of the six eggs hatched. It's been really fun for us to watch them from our kitchen window.

I'm not sure why I didn't tell about this next thing last week, maybe I was still in too much pain (just wait, I'll get to that part). We went to the beach on Labor Day. It was actually the day that Hurricane Hanna was out to sea just east of us. That made the waves pretty big. It was so much fun. We are always very good about putting sunscreen on, especially on the girls. Well, Katie totally forgot to put sunscreen on, and I asked Katie to spray my back (we have that cool spray on kind). Well, neither of us thought about rubbing it in. We never really have before, but it was a lot windier than it usually is, so I think the mist that would have normally stuck on my back got blown away. The only part that was protected was where the spray went directly on. I guess this picture will show you what I mean. This is also good proof that sunscreen does work (when properly applied)!

We got to feed the missionaries last night. That is something that we rarely got to do in Idaho because the missionaries covered three or four wards. Well, Katie and I were in the kitchen getting dinner ready and I was kind of teasing Katie. I guess it sounded to Adella like we were arguing because she came in and said, "Guys, guys, settle down guys." We stopped talking because that was pretty funny by itself. Then she said, "Let's talk nice to each other." She is such a funny girl. Sorry, I don't have any pictures to go along with that story, so I'll just put up a couple of the cutest girls ever!

Adella really wanted to help make the chili, so I wasn't going to argue. She also put this tiara on Kayla.

That reminds me that Kayla is very close to crawling. She has been scooting around on her belly for a while now. Yesterday she almost started crawling a couple times. It won't be long now. I'm not sure we're ready for this. I guess I'll let you know how things progress next week!

My First Blog

So, this is my first ever blog! Now that I have it started, I don't know what to write. I guess I will tell a little about me and my family. Katie and I have been married for five years next month! We have two beautiful little girls. Adella is three and a half, and Kayla is seven months.

We moved to Florida about a month ago so that I could start Optometry School. We love being close to the beach. It takes us about 15 minutes to drive there. We don't love the humidity, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. I have heard that the humididty will go away in a few months, then it will be perfect for about six months. We are looking forward to that!

This is at the beach we like to go to. You can see how far out you can go without it getting very deep. Kayla likes when we take her down to the water, and Adella loves to play in the sand (she is usually covered by the time we are ready to go.

Adella got some salty water in her mouth so she kept spitting. I guess I need to teach her how to spit without getting it all on her chin.

Normally the waves are small like the ones in the pictures, but the last time we went was when Hurricane Hanna was out east of us, so there were big waves. We mostly stayed close to shore.

We are happy that Hurrican Ike looks like it will go south of us. For a while they kept saying that it would go right over us and be a category four (yikes)! Now they say that it will (probably) go over Cuba instead and be a category one.

Now that I have told all about the hurricanes, and the "wonderful" heat and humidity, we want everyone to know that we always want visitors. Consider this your invitation. We do miss being so close to everyone and look forward to visits.