a piece of humble cake

you know those times when you feel like giving yourself a pat on the back and think to yourself "man, my child is perfect and I am doing a pretty good job at being a Mom. I can trust that my 20 month old daughter can hold a piece of cake in the car and not eat it because I've taught her self control and skills that will carry on into her adulthood.....blah blah blah" to find that half way home she has actually ripped the saran wrap off and has helped herself to "daddy's" piece of cake (with BLACK frosting). I just have to laugh at myself sometimes because no matter how many times I think i'm the best, reality brings me back down and gives me a serving of humble pie, or cake??

silly

well, I logged onto to post, but spent all my time catching up reading blogs - and the sad part is I only got to a few! HAHA

Happy Easter!

We went camping over Easter weekend at Bunnamagoo, my paren'ts property. It was soooo much fun, perfect weather, perfect company, all the little kids and babies were practically perfect and we stayed up late talking by the fire every night. it's just what all camping trips should be like! This is the group of us, just friends from church (missing kylee and Jeremy- napping)

Anita and Kylee on the big swing. Kylee was such a social butterfly the whole time. She was always hanging around the other parents trying to get a cuddle or something.

Kylee girl

On our beach excursion, we found this hiking stick which Kylee hung onto the whole time. She even fell asleep with it in her hand.

bathing with buddies in the sink....with warm water heated up by the fire. The kids thought it was so fun, except River wouldn't have anything to do with it untill all the girls were out of the bath!

Montana Rea and Kylee

Here are a few photos from home. Kylee is a little mummy. She has her church bag and baby and she walks around saying ."go" she's just like me :)

Obviously it was a bright sunny day, so we took what will probably be the last trip to the beach for the summer. It was a lot of fun.

Isn't Jeremy a hunk? haha

more camping photos....Carrie Montana and Kylee

Kylee was the big girl and tried to play with the little kids. In this picture she was taking Monty "walking"

Well that's a short update for now. We're really looking forward to our visit in June!

UPDATE

Nanny and Kylee on Australia Day (it's a fake tatto, don't worry)

Australia Day is January 26th. It's like 4th of July in America. We met at the beach with our ward and had breakfast,

Then went for a dip because it was soooo hot....

...And SOMEBODY (supposedly I did), forgot to bring Jeremy's swimming suit so he went in his shorts,

and Kylee and Mummy thought it was pretty funny,

and mummy didn't forget her NEW swimmsuit from Limericki.com, and Kylee's "rashy" to protect her from the sun.

We had a fun filled day, the weather was great! Happy Australia Day! We're lucky that we get to celebrate both countries "special" day because we'll be there on the 4th of July! I have to admit that I missed the fireworks in UT.

Gardening with Nanny

Kylee and her garden tools,

she's a natural

After Gardening we washed the cars. Bill filled up this bucket of water for Kylee and she loved it, just hopped in with her clothes on!

We have to be sun safe, Kylee always has her hat. :)

Grandpa comes in sometimes and always has "lollies" for Kylee. This time it's a gummy worm,

which Kylee obviously enjoyed, and I think she swallowed it up in one go!



I bet you can't guess what Kylee's favorite letter is! And of course, the video ends with Kylee trying to hold the camera to see the video. Most of our videos we take of her have to be secretive otherwise, she stops doing what she's doing and comes over to grab the camera!

Something I've learned recently is that metaphors work when talking to my husband. I've found a way to make myself happy in doing so:). I hope that what I've learned can help others. This is what I've learned.

You can't expect orange juice to come out of an apple. Even though sometimes you want orange juice, you can't have it because you have an apple. Apples can be very good, and I might add that I've got one delicous, crunchy, apple which makes GREAT apple juice, BUT, Sometimes I just want orange juice and that's when I usually get frustrated. SO, my life lesson and my point is that if you find that you're unhappy about something, change your expectations. I have learned to love apple juice and not expect orange juice. It's made life a lot easier!

Anyway, I also wanted to wish my sister Kimberly a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I hope you have a great day, and know that i'm thinking about you.

Sleep

Well, I know that this may be boring for some, but I think it is blog worthy. In my last post I mentioned that Kylee isn't sleeping through the night. Well drumroll please.......2 nights in a row!!!!!! WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Finally. I think this is it! No flukes anymore. Jeremy and I had a plan to let her cry it out at night, and I wouldn't feed her. Just Jeremy gets her. Well the first night, she kept crying "mama mama"...then went to sleep after an hour. the next night, she woke up again crying "mama"...then all of a sudden "dada" then went to sleep after half an hour, then last night she didn't wake up at all.
Like i said, probably a boring post, but those of you out there who think that 4-5 hours consecutive sleep means you had a "good night" can appreciate this post.

Nursery

Well, my little one is in nursery now. It's kind of sad that I'm REALLY excited about it. I even put her in a little early because I just can't juggle a 15 month old and my calling as RS secretary and Jeremy is in Young men's. She walked in the nursery room and looked at all the toys and said "toys!" "wow" and then I slipped out and she didn't peep once! I'm enjoying the lessons in church now and won't have to read books or slip raisins to a child for quite some time!

I'm very excited today. I just recieved TWO cute swimsuits! I HATE swimsuit shopping and have been doing it since June right before I left, so I am proud to say that I have found not only one, but two very nice, hip, "practical" MODEST swimsuits. I found a really cute website (well two actually) and would like to recommend them to all. First is Limericki.com and the second is called Hepari, who's website you will just have to google. I know most people reading my blog live in Ut and swimming is the last thing on your mind amongst all the snow, but why not break the mold and buy swimwear in January!

Another item of insterest (to me atleast). My wonderful, adoring, sweet, smart little baby, is no longer a baby anymore. She is a toddler and sure acts like one. She has learned the word and meaning of "no". A common conversation I have with her goes something like this
"kylee, let's sing twinkle little star" "No"
"Kylee, can you say dog?" "no"
"Kylee, do you want to get out of bed?" "No"
"Here Kylee, one more bight" "No"
Some toddlers say no, but really mean yes. Well, that's not Kylee, she really means it and is as stubborn as her dad (and me :)
Heaven help me!!!!
And shouldn't she be sleeping through the night? Hmmm.... It's a good thing she's cute, or I'd be going crazy. Sometimes at night, Jeremy and I will talk about her and cute things she's done duringthe day and I'll get the urge to wake her up. You know, like you used to want to wake up your sleeping baby because they're just so cute, well, I still feel that way sometimes. I'm so lucky to be a mother and I love my Kylee girl so much. She is my own little gift from my Heavenly Father and testifies to me that he is real.

Jeremy got a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!! After all his hard work and calling and emailing resumes, he got offered a job at the University of the Sunshine Coast in the Chemistry department (surprise surprise!) and will be working on a project with one of the professors. It's such a blessing because he's decided to go to school there too. So, we won't have to move and he'll have a job and we can stay in this area. His neck is back to normal, which is another miralce. 3 people have died in the waves since the new year. It's serious stuff, and we're just counting our blessings that he's healed with no lasting consequences from the injury.

Well, my little princess just woke up from her nap, so I've got to go. Time flies! I was going to quickly check my blog and post so that I could sneak a quick nap in before she woke up. Better luck next time!

Some recent photos

who let the who out of whoville?!!!!

Well here we are, pjs and all, on christmas morning. Notice Kylee's bib already has dripped chocolate on it! It didn't take long before she was into the chocolate!

We went camping on my paren'ts property 5 hours north of where we live. It rained quite a bit, but we made the best of it! I notice more and more how big Kylee is getting and how fast too! Last time we were here, she couldn't even walk. This time, she was walking all over and tripping on the vines and branches on the ground. Not to mention her camping shoes were too small!

There's nothing like a bath at the end of the day. Time to wash off all the sweat, mosquito repellant and dirt! No sooner did she wash off, she was sweating again. That's how HOTT it is!

Happy new year to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!! We stayed up and partied! we're crazy! (don't tell any one it was a ward party....) we had a blast. Kylee went home early with my parents so it was kind of like a date. Ironically, me and this girl that was dancing next to me at the party got to talking. She was visiting from Utah and grew up in Jeremy's home ward!!!!

Here's a video of Kylee Christmas morning. It took about 1 hour to load, otherwise there'd be more video! Hope you all enjoy it!

Just an update. Jeremy got an offer for school. He's changed his mind and isn't going to be an engineer anymore. He's finally admitted that he wants to be a teacher and get a double bachelor in teaching and science (physics and chemistry) he starts february.
We love and miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!