Life With The Bucks

Out of Africa #4!

2012-01-20T20:53:00.000-08:00

We made another trip to Out of Africa a week ago. I LOVE THAT PLACE! Every time we've been, the animals were so active! You can see our other visits here, here, and here :) LOVE THIS PLACE :)

(Unfortunetly this was a unplanned trip and I didn't get my nice camera charged, so here's from my old point and shoot!)

Kendal being brave and put the carrot between her lips for a big giraffe kiss!

Mylee standing up on the bus watching the camel.

I love how brave Kendal is. She goes right up to the lady with this huge snake and politely asks if she can pet it.

Love how close we can get to the animals!

Mylee got sad because she thought we left her. We were behind the stroller and she realized after 10 minutes that she could no longer see us. What drama! haha

Mylee wasn't really able to get out and be busy like usual. She was either in the stroller or carried. She finally had enough and started reaching for the ground. I let her down and she started taking a few steps. It was cute.

Such a beautiful animal!

Mylee even loved the python!

Another beauty!

Here are some awesome videos we got from the day. Amazing!

Hiking

2012-01-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

This new year Tanner and I have been doing more. Tanner gets off work somewhat early from work and we really wouldn't do anything. He'd come home and we'd do this and that, eat dinner and then watch some tv and go to bed. Not a very exciting life. But we have been going out more. Saturday we practically had the WHOLE day together...ALONE! The Buck's...my in laws :)...were awesome and watched the girls so that Tanner and I could go to the Temple. I'm embarrassed to say when the last time we went was...but it was so nice to go back. After the Temple, we did lunch and then picked up the girls. Later that evening we had a young woman from our ward babysit. She needed volunteer hours for school and we were happy to volunteer our kids! We went to dinner at Ah-So. We had the cook cook our food in front of us. That was entertaining.

Anyway, the reason of this post is we've been hiking lately. There is a hill by us that is paved to the top that I hike twice a week. That same location there are three hills, not paved, and pretty steep that we've hiked a few times now. Here are a few pics from yesterday's hike, I didn't feel like lugging my nice camera along, some of the parts of the hill are straight up/down with lots of loose rocks...didn't want to ruin my camera. So these pics aren't the best quality but who cares. :)

9 Months! And a quick update

2012-01-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

Little Mylee is now 9 months old! She is the sweetest little girl. Teething right now, trying to get those two top teeth in. They are about to break so I hurried to take some photos of her today. I'm not really excited about her top teeth coming in. She has such a sweet smile with the two bottom teeth...I don't want it to change!

At 9 months Mylee:

*Has 2 teeth.

*A big attitude, which we giggle at. She's quite the drama queen.

*LOVES to kiss her baby doll, stuffed animal dog and of course Mommy, Daddy and Kendal. Although she has learned to do a fast kiss with Daddy. It's quite funny. She opens her mouth, goes in for the kiss, barely touches and pulls away with her eyes closed tight. Guess she's learned he has a pokey face!

*I consider her to be a Mommy's girl. I had another little girl sitting on my lap at a baptism and Mylee started being drama. She was crying and reaching for me. It was really funny.

*She LOVES animals. Mainly dogs. She will giggle and screech to get the dogs attention.

*She can say "Mama" "Dada" and Dog "Gah" she jabbers a ton!

*She is starting to walk around the furniture. (I am REALLY tempted to knock her down....I REALLY don't want her walking!!)

*She still sleeps 10-13 hours at night. EVERY night.

*She is a very, VERY active girl. Church is difficult because she wants to be down crawling and exploring.

*She is doing great without the binky! She hasn't found her thumb in exchange so we are good! She goes to bed and naps with ease. I absolutely love it!

*She LOVES to play with Kendal. Anytime Kendal sits on the floor to play with something, Mylee starts to crawl over to her and as she crawls over, Mylee is giggling all the way. "I get to play with Sissy" Kendal gets frustrated after a while, so I've taught Kendal do sit on the couch and play or to not get a certain something out while Mylee is awake. To wait til Mylee goes down for her nap. Kendal is learning that Mylee is a friend. I hope I teach that well. I want my girls to be friends. So far, they are doing well. Kendal is learning to share toys and to give Mylee toys to play with. It's awesome to watch.

She is SUCH an easy baby. She rarely cries. If she does, it's easy to know why. Time to eat, sleep or she's throwing a tantrum cuz she can't have something she wants. Drama, drama, drama. But I love it. I laugh at her fits. They are so pathetic but so cute! I'm so grateful for this sweet girl in our family. She really is the cherry on top. :)

For all those who read my blog...I've been getting that "when are you going to have another baby?" question...to answer...WE ARE NOT HAVING ANYMORE! haha We love just having our two girls and I can't imagine even wanting to be pregnant. I always thought I'd have more, but after going through pregnancy and now raising kids, we are done. :)

I've been really bad at updating lately. I am in training for a half marathon that will take place in less than THREE WEEKS!! I've had a really hard last month dealing with tendinitis in both my knees.I'll be posting about everything after my race. CRAZY!!

Life is great though! Having lots of fun as a family and enjoying each other. Kendal is amazing. She is now in Sunbeams at church and loves it! After we pick her up a handful of teachers tell me how awesome Kendal is and how much of a joy she is to have there. I love hearing that! Kendal is such a good kid. Such a big helper!

I'm excited for the new year. I have some goals that I've set for the year. When thinking about what goals I wanted, I always write down the obvious ones. Eat healthy, don't gain weight, keep a clean house....the same goals I set every year. But this year is a little different.

*Run a half marathon

*Learn to ride a motorcycle

*Hike Camelback mountain (I tried to when kendal was a year old and I only made it about 1/4 of the way up. HARD!!)

*I have a new interest in trail running. With running long distance on the road, my knees and body are falling apart. So I've learned about trail running. Running mountains/hills. Looks like a ton of fun!

These are just a few I've come up with so far. These are real obtainable goals for me. Something I'm interested in. I'm very excited for this new year and where I can take myself.

First up...half marathon!! January 28th, 2012!

Family Photos!

2011-12-16T16:58:00.001-08:00

Finally, after 8 months we took family photos! Don't know why it's taken this long. But here they are :) Thank you tripod and new camera remote! You saved us tons of money :)

Mylee is teething so ignore her messy nose. She also wasn't flashing her sweet smile too much tonight either. May be taking more of her in a few days.

Weight Blog Update

2011-12-09T09:17:00.001-08:00

I'm currently working on an 8 month posting for Mylee! But until I can get that finished, here is an update from my weight loss blog :)

Another accomplishment! I'm very excited!!!!

Santa Claus and Update!

2011-12-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

(lots of videos....sorry about them being blurry. My camera is manual focus in video mode. :/

My girls have been sick so much already! They've both had croup and now colds. Poo. One week it's Kendal, the next is Mylee. It really is getting hard on Mom. I think we'll be keeping out of nursery til the new year. Luckily Kendal will be in sunbeams (CRAZY!) and there hopefully won't be as many germs!

I haven't really posted much because of the sicknesses. All my time is spent snuggling, wiping noses, giving medicine, etc. But both my girls are napping at the same time so I finally have me time!

Where to begin!? Little Mylee is 8 months old!! I can't believe how fast she is growing!!! Sometimes I get a little sad about it! But she is just so sweet. She is always smiling. Smiley Mylee! I love it! She is now crawling more on her hands and knees. She's been army crawling since 6 months! It was fun to watch the transition! And it's funny to watch her try to get going really fast on her hands and knees and then face plant it! She doesn't cry, just gets right back up! She is so mobile now. Crawling everywhere. She can go from sitting to laying and then back to sitting. She is also pulling herself up constantly! She has a little piano that she's pulled herself up with several times before, but now she's always standing at it playing. Or she is taking it for a walk across the room. She is trying to use the couch to pull herself up. She gets frustrated. I think she's just scared. She's kind of a sensitive little thing. We have recently taken her binky away. It's only been 2 nights and 1 whole day, but she's doing well. We took Kendal's bink away when she was 9 months. Had no problems. Mylee has been a little attached to her binky so we thought we'd give it a try. So far so good. She cries as she falls asleep, but it's only for 10 minutes. So it's really not that bad! I'm very impressed with her! The reason behind us taking the bink away now is so we won't have a two year old with one! It just seems if you don't take it away before their 1 year birthday...it stays a lot longer. Make sense? One thing I love about taking the bink away is that Mylee FINALLY will snuggle with me!! She was never a snuggle-er and it made me so sad! She loves snuggling with Daddy, but not me. But now she does! Oh how I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

Mylee is starting to like her baths. She thinks splashing is super funny. Didn't get a great video of her laughing but still shows a little.

She also started playing peek a boo the other day with me. And of course as soon as I grab the camera she stops.

A video from a month ago. Shows her scooting around.

Oh the random things they think is hilarious!

CLAPPING! Trying to. I thought she was waving, but it's a one handed clap!

Hissy Fit. I love her tantrums!

On to Kendal girl. She is such a funny thing! We've been trying to write stories down in a book. I'll probably just keep those stories there since I can't find the words to really give justice to her goofyness.

She's learning how to wink!

We set up our Christmas Tree :)

And made a countdown to Christmas chain.

We were able to see Santa TWICE this weekend! Once at our church party...

And again at our neighbors house! Santa came in on a firetruck! Every year Mike, our neighbor, goes crazy with Christmas lights! The kind of lights that light up with music! You tune your radio and listen in. It's awesome. He also makes his own "snow" he was saying it's a mix of soap and....vodka? haha It smelt really good. And all the kids LOVED running and playing in it!

I love watching Kendal's reaction! At first, where's Santa? Then she just stares at him! I wonder if she saw a difference from the two Santa's. She did however notice this Santa had a different voice. "Mommy, why does Santa talk different?" OOPS! haha

I really love this photo above! She is such a pretty little girl!

(The only time she's serious! She gets so nervous!)

Mike also had a small train track the little kids could ride.

Mylee taking a ride with sister.

Mylee squealing at Kendal as Kendal rides the train!

Utah Trip!

2011-12-05T09:01:00.001-08:00

Wow! What a crazy few weeks! It seems my girls were sick the whole month of November! One week it's Kendal, the next is Mylee. Kendal is sick again this week. Just a cold. But we have been up since 5am with her coughing. Poor thing. Anyway, this post is about Utah. I'll get to the family in another posting.

For Thanksgiving we were blessed to be able to make a visit to Utah. My brother who lives in Washington was meeting us there, since it's about half way for everyone. We had so much fun! The 2 days were we visiting my side of the family, I don't even think I saw Kendal. She was busy playing with cousins. (Mostly MY cousins who are her age!) Fun, right!?

To start off, with me running as much as I am now I didn't want to make a trip and lose it all. So I decided to try to get family members to run a 5k with me. The morning of Thanksgiving we set off on our run. It was nice! Tanner had mapped out a 5k run just around the block so it was perfect.

Cousin Clint, S-I-L Stephanie, Brother Chris, Tanner and myself.

Clint was my running buddy. We had fun!

After the run, Tanner has since shaved!

Thomas and Kendal. Kendal asks daily if she can go visit Thomas, Natalie and the Twins. If only!

My cousin Carson made a turkey pinata!

My Uncle Kim works at the nearby school and has access to the gym. We played basketball and climbed the rock wall for a long time! It was awesome!

Always a sideways binky!

(I can never do a serious smile...awkward! haha)

I just love Mylee! She is so sweet!

Below are some super sweet photos of Mylee and her cousin Beckham. They are only a week and a half apart...looks more like 2 months! He's a big boy!

We also went bowling with everyone.

We had so much fun visiting family! We are so blessed to have been able to visit with both my side of the family and Tanner's! I was horrible at taking photos while there! The only ones I took with my camera are the bowling ones! Pathetic! I'm kicking myself now!

Amazing Message

2011-11-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

I just posted about this video on my weight loss blog but I wanted to do the same here. I love hearing the Mormon Messages. Totally inspirational!

Jingle Bell Run

2011-11-08T10:11:00.000-08:00

Just real quick...I am doing another 5k run on December 17th. Does anyone want to run with me? It's at Victory Lanes, right behind Wet N' Wild. It's call the Jingle Bell Run. Let me know if anyone wants to run it with me. :) It's $20 until the first of December and $25 after that. Let me know!

5k #2!

2011-11-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

Well...this race wasn't as good as my first....it was FREEZING cold outside. I have been training in 80+ degree weather so running in 50 degree weather with wind...it was hard. HARD. But I finished and barely beat my previous time. I posted about it on my weight loss blog, so check it out!

Mylee turned 7 months old! AHH!! Can she really be that old already?!!? Time is flying by way too fast! I will update on her soon! My girls are waking up from naps! (Kendal is sick, so she took a nap today! Yahoo!)

Weight Loss Blog

2011-10-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

I am following some people's weight loss blog and to me they are very inspirational. So I wanted to start my own. You can follow what I'm up to and what not's here....

Weight Loss Blog

Trunk Or Treat

2011-10-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

Friday night was our ward trunk or treat. Kendal wanted to be Belle for Halloween but we didn't want to spend $20 on a costume so...Daddy picked up this super cute witch costume for half the price. Kendal loved it and loved putting makeup on. Even though she kept rubbing her eyes and smearing the makeup haha

Isn't she beautiful?!

Talk about no costumes for kids! Man! Thought the elephant was cute...it was much cuter on the cover of the costume wrapping lol

And this is why I hate flash. I never shoot with it. Gah!

Hey look! It's ME! I've notice that I am hardly in any photos! And now that I've lost a bunch of weight I figured I should be in more! :) Cute Mylee was so tired.

This photo here is a VERY RARE occasion! She NEVER falls asleep with me!

Kendal won a mini cake from the cake walk! Messy!

Tonight we are going to Anthem with some of our good friends for dinner and trick or treating! I'll post those photos later!

But I'll leave you with this....

She is 7 months old on the 2nd and pulled herself up to standing TWICE yesterday!! Ah!! I knew she was going to be difficult because she is such a drama queen...I didn't know she was going to be doing this too! She is such a busy body! I love it though! It will help entertain Kendal! My other busy body!

6 Month Comparison And Who Does Mylee Look Like?

2011-10-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

When Kendal was 6 months I took some really cute photos of her wearing this really cute jacket. Well...yesterday when Tanner got home, we tried to re-do some of Mylee in the jacket. I shot with a different lens so maybe I'll take some more with the lens I used to take Kendal's. Make sense? Here's Kendal at 6 months...isn't she beautiful!?

And now...Mylee

Don't you just LOVE her gummy smile?!? Won't be gummy for too much longer! Her first tooth broke through on Monday! And a second is right behind. Poor thing has been in so much pain!

Funny how different they look to me.

At the beginning of the month, Mylee started army crawling. She is everywhere now! Just yesterday, Kendal was getting really frustrated because Mylee was chasing her around the room trying to get her puzzle pieces. I couldn't help but laugh....and laugh and laugh. It really was so funny. Mylee is quick these days. Mylee can also get from the sitting position to crawling without falling. She is one strong little chick. She is also VERY VERY dramatic! I'm going to have my hands full with her. I laugh though. I know she was sent to me as a second child because Kendal has really taught me a lot and I think if Mylee were first born....we'd all be dead. When Mylee doesn't get what she wants, which she wants anything and everything we have, she holds her arms straight out to the side and tightens them, holds her breath and then releases with a huge grunt. It is so funny!! Tanner saw it for the first time yesterday and about died. I really am truly grateful Mylee is my second child. I am able to enjoy her dramatic-ness a whole lot more. I love it!

Another thing I've been wanting to do is compare baby photos with Mylee and Tanner and I. I have heard Kendal's whole life how much she looks like Tanner...and I 100% agree. With Mylee, I've heard both. Choose for yourself. What do you think? Who does Mylee look like?

Tanner...

Emily...

Mylee...

This past Sunday I taught in Relief Society for my very first time. I absolutely LOVED it! It was so fun to be up there and interacting with the women. I hope they ask me to teach again...I honestly had fun.

Also, I ran another 5k last night...not in a race...just the 3.1 miles. My sweet IPOD tanner got me for my birthday has workout modes on it and tracks distance and time. I love it. I was able to run the 3 miles a little faster than in my race and I even felt I could go faster than I did, but I was with some friends and didn't want to leave them. I felt 100% better last night than I did on Saturday. My legs were not about to give out last night and I didn't cramp up. It was amazing! I've been running every other day and on the days I don't run I do some weight training. Just after 3 days of working out I was able to run better. I can't wait for my next 5k race on November 5th!

Bugs Me When...(WARNING...venting below..read at your own risk)

2011-10-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

Do you have things that bug you? I do. One thing that is really starting to get on my nerves is when people say..."Oh I love your work....you MUST have a nice camera/lens."

AH!

When you eat dinner at someone's house, do you say to them..."That meal was really delicious....you MUST have a nice OVEN?"

-OR-

When when someone finishes a race...."Oh wow, you ran really fast, you must have nice shoes."

-OR-

When a cute outfit is sown..."Oh wow, that is a beautiful dress...you MUST have a nice sewing machine."

No you don't. Give credit where credit is deserved. (Hope that makes sense, I think I just made that up.)

This is not directed in anyone specific...I have had a lot of people say that to me... "you MUST have a nice/expensive camera/lens." Well...yes I do. But it's affordable. You get one and try to get the photos I take yourself. It bugs me!

I love my photography and I can finally say that. It's NOT just my nice camera. It's talent, knowledge and editing skills.

Another thing, if I may....I jumped on facebook yesterday because I heard a good friend had her baby. She doesn't blog and so the only way I'd see her baby is through facebook. (FYI: I deleted my facebook account 4 months ago.) I got on my hubby's and after 5 minutes of looking at people's status updates, I remembered why I left. Yes, I'll admit, this was me. People post "I should really get off my butt and clean my house" "I should really....." "I just did this...." "I'm at the grocery store..." Fill in the blank. Doesn't that get annoying to sit and read your 200+ friend's status updates? I was the one doing that and I was obsessed with facebook. But I can't imagine ever wanting to desire to get back on. What a waste.

Again...sorry for my venting. It's my blog...I can vent if I want to :)

5k

2011-10-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

Wow is all I can say! I'm not a runner. I am a sprinter, well back my day that is. I have never in my life ran more than a mile, until this past Wednesday....2 days before the race. I ran those two miles in 25 minutes so I was expecting to run the 5k in 40 minutes. Honestly. My first mile the other day was a 10 minute mile, the second mile was 15 and so I was guessing I'd be dead by the 3rd.

Starting from the beginning, both Tanner and I ran this. We slept horrible the night before. I had a cold the day before and wasn't feeling well at all. But we showed up at 7am and got ready to run. Now, this was very special for me. Tanner and I don't have much we do together...without kids. As I'm sure a lot of parent's don't. But it's important to me to have something with Tanner. (We'll see how long this running thing lasts lol!) Anyway, we warmed up and headed over to the starting line. And boy oh boy was my adrenaline pumping like mad crazy. Tanner and I started off together and stayed close for about half the way. I was surprised because his strides are 2x's the length of mine! About the half way point we both kind a needed a break. We walked and about 30 seconds I was like, HECK NO! I'm not walking! So I ditched Tanner, sorry babe. I caught up to a girl who looked like she knew what she was doing pace wise, so I followed her. I had no clue what to do. After a while of following her she stopped to walk so I past and kept going. I did take another break around the 3 mile mark, I think. Another no I'm not stopping moment and then I started running again.

There was no better feeling than being in site of the finishing line. I started sprinting the last quarter mile and kept that speed til the finish. Man, it felt so stinking good! I will be doing a ton more races just for that feeling! Tanner came in a few minutes behind me, I loved watching him finish. I was cheering and just so happy we could do this together.

Both Tanner and I took second place in our age groups, females 20-29 and males 20-29. And the most rewarding part...we got medals! Very cool! I had no idea going into this that I would place or get a medal. Just fun to get a physical thing, make sense?

(dont know why mine looks gold...lighting maybe)

(I always forget how short he makes me look, but in my defense....he is 6'5!) Kendal wanted to join in on the photo :)

October 22, 2011 Final Time 31:13.
Next race November 5, 2011

:)

Mylee At Her Best

2011-10-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Before Mylee goes to bed she likes to play....in her bed. For some reason she likes to smash her face against her bed while talking and laughing at us. I don't get why she likes it, but she sure makes some funny faces! She is such a funny baby!

Mylee is sitting up really well now. She rarely tips over anymore and she is starting to control her transition from sitting into crawling. Pretty dang good. She is crawling EVERY WHERE! (army crawling that is) But man, she can really get going. Especially after something Kendal has. Mylee loves playing with Kendal and wants to do everything she does. I need to get it on video because it is hilarious!

And now, I'm going to brag about myself a little, so stop reading if you don't care haha

Last night was the first time in my life that I ran 2 whole miles without stopping! Silly, but man I felt so good. The last half mile all I could think about was convincing myself to stop. But luckily I had my wonderful ipod Tanner bought me for my birthday, so with a change of a song I was able to make it. That song was Party Rock Anthem but LMFAO. It is such a fun song. Anyway, I just wanted to record this. My first 2 mile run, with no breaks! And I'm not dead this morning! That's all. Thanks. :)

Bye Bye DREADS!

2011-10-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

So...my brother Tim, who is currently in New York practicing with the Buffalo Bills, has recently chopped his hair off. This was a family affair and we all took turns cutting his dreads one by one.

(my lens doesn't zoom in and out like a normal one...don't think someone knew that! lol this makes me laugh though!)

Yes...we weighed them!

Out of Africa Trip #4!

2011-10-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

Back in February we bought a season pass to Out of Africa. We went again this past weekend. The weather was beautiful! It's really fun when the weather is nice because the animals are definitely more active.

Tanner and I both received giraffe kisses! They weren't too bad! ;)

Mylee wanted to eat the carrot instead of feeding the giraffe :)

They do a show called Tiger Splash. Last time we saw it, it was pretty boring. It was hot out. So this time the tiger was way more active. They try to get the tiger to go after the inflatable toys and then jump into the water. It was a lot of fun!

Look at that amazing dad!!!

The tiger that was in Tiger Splash was this lion's roommate, crazy huh? The whole time while the tiger was gone, the lion would just pace around as if she was jealous that she doesn't get to play.

Tanner did get the lion to chase him a little. Before I got the camera out the lion would growl at Tanner. I love this park! I love how close we can get to the animals!

Gymnastics!

2011-10-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

We have officially started gymnastics! Kendal is a natural and I think we will be keeping her in gymnastics for a long time. Eventually I want to find a dance studio, that's worth the money, to put her in. She is ALWAYS dancing. I love it! The photos are from the first week and the videos from the second week. The second week the place had crappy lighting and I refuse to use my flash, so we took video instead! The teacher always says how amazed she is with Kendal. The teacher usually starts taking kids at age 4. Kendal just turned 3 in July and is able to follow along well enough to start now! I love it. I love how fast of a learner Kendal is. Just watch the videos! She loves it!

(This is her straddle jump! hahahaha! Almost got it!)

Photos From September

2011-10-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Well September has come and gone and I have posted in a while. I'm getting busy with photography now that the weather is cooler....sometimes. Today is high 90's. Fun.

Anyway, I'm not able to update often but want to so I can remember milestones. September Kendal learned to ride her bike. With it being insanely hot outside this summer, we didn't do much. At first Kendal rode her bike pretty slow, got off and walked it around to turn around going the opposite direction. Now she is riding really fast, going over bumps, riding with no hands and standing up to pedal. It was so fun to watch her learn and gain confidence. She is funny.

After naps, Kendal always runs into see Mylee. I think Kendal really misses her while she's asleep. She asks "where's Mylee" a lot while she's napping. I think it's pretty cute. So after Mylee wakes up Kendal rushes in to play.

I just LOVE these photos I was able to capture. Shows what Kendal does. Just jumps on top and talks to her while Mylee just giggles back.

look at my beautiful babes!!! I love them!!!

Mylee is eating really well now. Eats EVERYTHING. She is now enjoying graham crackers, french fries, bread, animal crackers and there's more I just can't think of them all now.

I Love how my girls love to play together. Kendal really enjoys making Mylee giggle.

And then....When Daddy comes home....Mylee is as glad as she can be!! Just look at those sweet smiles Tanner gets!

Mylee has started crinkling her nose and sniffing in and out really fast. It's seriously the cutest thing.

Kendal made Mylee into an airplane. She's so creative.

After running one night, Tanner was at mutual so we tried to think of some fun things to entertain us with. What better than the flashlight!?

I played volleyball in high school and in college. I loved going to games and watching. The end of September we took Kendal to her first ASU volleyball match. It was a pretty intense match!

(She's such a stinker!)

More bike riding!

5 Month Old Mylee!!!

2011-09-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Can you believe Mylee is already 5 months old?! I thought I'd be way sad as she got older, but she is just way too much fun! She is doing a lot better with eating now. I think she really enjoys her solid foods, which is so nice since we had such a hard time with nursing. Here's a list of things about her at 5 months old...

*She loves tummy time and loves to sleep on her tummy.

*She talks, A LOT. Even when she eats. Milk or food, she hums has she takes a bite. She makes some of the cutest noises.

*She grabs everything with in her arms reach. And she starts reaching as soon as something becomes in arms reach. She gets really excited as she grabs too. Her eyes get huge and she starts moving fast. It's super cute.

*She enjoys attention. She can play on the floor for a good while by herself, after a while she start whimpering. Yes, a VERY pathetic whimper. As soon as someone gets down and starts talking to her she starts giggling. A sort of fake giggle.

*She has found her squealing voice and squeals ALL. THE. TIME. Even when she cries. It's sure funny to see how her cry has changed from when she was a newborn til now.

*She loves to read/look at books.

*She slobbers as she watches us eat our "big kid food"

*She constantly has her mouth opened like a baby bird waiting to be fed. She loves my kisses, or at least I think she does. She giggles after I kiss her. She doesn't like Daddy's as much, his face is pokey.

*She can fall asleep on her own. I LOVE THIS!! Kendal NEVER did this. When Mylee starts to whimper, we put her on our bed, blocked in by pillows, with her binky and blanket and she will fall asleep 1-10minutes later.

*She loves to roll. She rolls around on the floor back and forth while munching on her fists. Yes, her whole fist. Sometimes both of them. She has a big mouth.

*Speaking of mouth...no signs of teeth yet.

*She is also sitting really well now. Still topples over often but is holding the position for a longer time. I think she enjoys sitting. If she's not on her tummy, she gets frustrated cuz she can't see everything that's going on.

*She loves Kendal. Any noise Kendal makes, Mylee giggles. And man, she's got such a sweet giggle. All babies do!

I think that pretty much sums up Mylee. She is a joy to have in our family and we love her to pieces. She always puts a smile in our hearts.

Crazy Kendal!

2011-09-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to a pool party. A bunch of the kids started jumping of this 6ft, or taller, ladder into the pool. Kendal sat and watched for a while and then decided she wanted to jump! Ah! She hesitates when she jumps off the diving board. I had no idea she would even consider jumping off this tall ladder. Well, she did. He's a little video. She did it a second time with hesitation and didn't want to jump anymore. My curious kid! Sorry it's sideways. I recorded this on my phone. :) The dad standing next to the ladder is over 6ft tall. You get the idea of how tall this ladder is?! Crazy Kendal!

Confidence

2011-08-31T15:25:00.000-07:00

I'll touch on the reason behind the title of this post a little later. For now, I have some catching up to do. I have been pretty naughty about talking photos recently. I have a few photo shoots to edit and just take up all my extra time. That, and we moved. Sort of. The property we live on has 5 RV hookups. (I guess some of you might not know that my family lives in a 5th wheel trailer. You know what that is? It's seriously awesome. I love it!) Anyway, our wonderful neighbors decided to move. So we took their corner spot against the wall. So we have a bigger yard :) It still took all day. We organized our storage as well though. That took all morning.

Here are a few photos I've taken with in the past little while.

I started putting Kendal to work. She now washes my dishes and counter tops. She loves it! I'm going to let her do it all she wants. :)

Kendal is a one man band. She put on a show for Mylee and I the other day. It was too cute to not grab a photo. She is seriously such a funny girl.

Remember my last post about my cooking? Here are the cinnamon and raisin bagels I created. First time I've really experimented with cooking and doing my own thing.

Kendal went swimming on Saturday while we were moving things over. Her plastic pool had a crack in it so it made a mud pit. We found this.

And lastly a beautiful sunset! I thought it was going to get bigger as the sun lowered, but it didn't. Still way pretty! Good old AZ sunsets :)

So back to the title of this post. Confidence. How many of you out there reading this have that? I don't. In anything I do I'm always doubting myself. Whether it be photography, dinner I cooked, the way I look anything! It's starting to get on my nerves. Before marriage I had confidence, or at least some. I played volleyball for one year in college and all through high school. So I was in great physical shape. I think that's the most I worry about these days. Having one kids changes your body, two kids....a whole new body. Now, I haven't been working out because I have this goal of breastfeeding Mylee longer than I did Kendal. Sad to say, I've achieved that. Sad because Mylee is only 5 months. And with Mylee I'm producing enough to store away. I pump for those of you who don't know my story. I always dislike reading new blogs where they tell a story but I don't know the history so I can't follow. Maybe I'll make a column about my life. A short summary. I like having people relate to me. Anyway, I like to get off subject a lot. So confidence. I am very embarrassed about my physical appearance. It's been over 110 here for the past 2 weeks now. RIDICULOUS!! Anyway, so Tanner and I have decided to compete. Not really. It's not a competition, more just finishing a REALLY hard event.

"Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet"

"Tough Mudder is not your average lame-*** mud run or spirit-crushing ‘endurance’ road race. Our 10-12 mile obstacle courses are designed by British Special Forces to test all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. Forget finish times. Simply completing a Tough Mudder is a badge of honor."

Still confused on what we are doing? It's called "Tough Mudder" It's an obstacle course. 11 miles. In mud, freezing cold water, electric shock and a ton more. Click here to see the map of the Tough Mudder Tanner and I have signed up for! We have started the training this week and will continue hard until January. I am so excited to do this. I need this to get a fire started in me. I'm not a wuss and I'm tired of looking and feeling like one. (blogger was spazing out and I don't know why the text is all different.)

We are excited to be doing something together. We haven't done much as a couple, besides making and raising our kids. ;) Training so far this week has been a lot of fun. We swam laps yesterday until we couldn't breathe. (Which wasn't too many laps for me cuz I'm a horrible swimming even if I were in better shape.)

Wish us luck and I'll continue to post about our training. I'd post our photos of our "before" the training started...but I'm not that brave. Same with weight...not that brave. I'll probably wait til January to show the results.

2011-08-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

Since having children 3 years ago, I've needed a "something" that made me happy. Something that could help me get through the days. Something that re-energized me. A release. Being a mom is HARD WORK. It's very fun, but man it's all I do 24/7 365 days a year! With all my life devoted to my children, I wanted to find something for me. I totally thought it'd be working out. I love to work out. But right now it's way to DANG hot outside. (110+ ALL this week.) I don't really get motivated to work out even at 6am. So...with being so busy with mommy-hood, I have forgotten about my "something" Until recently. I cook dinners. I make breakfast and lunch. I just never thought about doing more. I have been getting out of my 2 week meal plan routine and finding more things to throw in the routine. And I have loved it. Over a year ago I bought a bread machine...$13 at goodwill....yes I am that cheap. But I never used it til about a week ago when I made bagels. Oh so yummy. And oh so easy! I'm excited to throw in some "toppings" like cinnamon and raisins. (My favorite type of bagel.) I've also made some pretzel bites, and tuna salad. Kendal seems to get hungry in between meals. So I'm trying to find snacky type foods. Healthy stuff....or somewhat healthy. Anything better than cookies. :) With making the bagels, I have really realized how much I enjoy cooking/baking. Now that I know what most ingredients are, I am not scared to try anything. I'm typing this as I'm eating the tuna salad I just made. Simply wonderful. Oh ya, I also made these.

Feels good to finally have something I can do that completes me happiness.

Bedtime

2011-08-24T21:42:00.001-07:00

Oh how sweet it is to be able to lay 2 kids down for bed and not hear a sound. Music to my hears. We've always has troubles with Kendal. She never felt asleep on her own. We had to rock her. And she never slept through the night. Oh how sweet it is to now sleep through the night with no interruptions! Finally! Life is good.

Oh...look what Mylee can do :) she isn't staying up long. It's cute she'll stay up for as long as we cheer, but once we stop cheering she tips over. She is growing to fast! But I'm loving every minute! (please ignore the horrible camera phone quality. It was dark and my nice camera wasn't close by. I'll snap better pics tomorrow when the sun is up :)

Back On!

2011-08-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

My internet is back on! Whoo-hoo! Wished I had it yesterday while making my weekly meal plan...my neck is a little sore and cramped today cuz of having to strain to look at the screen on my phone. Thank goodness for internet!

But not thank goodness for 114 degree weather!! My husband came home and said lots of guys were passing out at work today. He works OUTSIDE at a golf course. All the landscapers where passing out with heat stroke! Remember! DRINKS LOTS OF WATER!!

Up To's

2011-08-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been extremely busy lately. I'm learning how to entertain Kendal and I really am enjoying it. Here are some photos to show.

"Puff Paint" So fun!

Miss Mylee trying peas. She Loved them!

Kendal dumps her toys out just the play with the bucket! She's pretending to be a robot.

Tanner made some flash cards for practicing numbers.

We got rid of the TV....it's been AMAZING! )TV is now in my bedroom)

Cornstarch goob. Cornstarch and water mixture.

We made some puppets :)

Utah Trip

2011-08-20T19:32:00.000-07:00

Don't have much time to type...Kendal is busy getting into things. But we had an awesome trip to Utah about week ago. We had fun visiting family, LOTS of tea parties, went to a rodeo, and fun at Bear Lake. Lots of fun with cousins, which are technically my cousins but they are Kendal's age. So grateful we were able to go on this vacation. It was really nice for me to get a break from entertaining Kendal. The girls did so amazing on this trip. No tears on the ride up or back! I was amazed!!

We met Tanner's cousin at the park. They lived in AZ but moved to Utah in December.

Logan Fair. Kendal was OUT!

Bear Lake. Kendal with MY cousins!

Mylee had a hard time getting her naps in. So many new noises and new places. So at Bear Lake, she FINALLY slept. I had her in my wrap for 4 hours straight! Tired little girl!

Mylee and my Grandma :) Her Great Grandma!

Tanner and his Grandma!
Our last day in Utah, I stayed with my Grandma to hang out and Tanner went and hung out with some of his family. Nice having extended family so close together!

Uncle, I guess my Uncle, Jared making snow cones for the kiddos!

My Aunt and Uncle have 4 kids. 5, 4, 2years(twins) Crazy story. We absolutely love them! Kendal had so much fun with them! Wish we lived closer!

Having another tea party with Grandma Dallas!

Best Vacation!

2011-08-15T18:05:00.001-07:00

Just let this photo of Mylee tell you how much fun we had on our vacation! A full update coming soon! Crossing my fingers that our internet is back on.

Rolling

2011-08-10T13:45:00.001-07:00

Got a video of Mylee rolling over. 99% of the time she spends playing on the floor she is on her tummy. Can't keep her on her back anymore. Even durning naps she rolls to her tummy.

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Little Mommy

2011-08-08T15:35:00.001-07:00

My little Kendal is the most amazing big sister. She is always so busy but every now and again she stops to give Mylee a big kiss or sometimes she'll even spend some time on the floor talking to Mylee. I absolutely love having 2 girls. Kendal is such a copycat. I really have to watch myself with her. She makes me laugh.

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Quick Update

2011-08-08T08:20:00.001-07:00

Well for some reason my internet is down and has been for a while. Trying to fix that soon. But for now life is good! The girls are amazing! Mylee is rolling over both directions all the time now. Kendal is learning to talk through her frustrations and laughing more. Tanner is enjoying his job and I love being able to stay home! I'm going to start preschool with Kendal soon and hoping to start a play group soon. Still unsure about the move but we might just stay where we are. We like it here. Life is good!

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Mouth Full

2011-08-03T09:58:00.001-07:00

"After 4 months of trying to find my thumb, I've given up and now just suck my whole fist"

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Three Wheeling and Rain Dancing!

2011-08-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

Well once again all these photos are out of order. Oh well. My little family is so great. We haven't moved yet...and probably won't til the 1st of September. I am learning to enjoy where we are. I almost don't want to move anymore! Our current spot has a tree which brings shade for hot HOT summer days, a crazy 3 year old and a Mom with cabin fever! The new place is much bigger....just no shade.

With this shade, I took Mylee and Kendal out to play as I started laundry.

Mylee sure loved being in this jumpy thing. I unfortunately don't have a spot in the house to hang this...so another reason why I like our tree :)

Tanner took Kendal outside to play. I came out to see what they were doing. I LOVED to see this. Honestly, Tanner never played sports so to see him out teaching Kendal how to swing a bat was wonderful to see. I guess before I came out Kendal had hit the ball from where she is standing to the pavement behind Tanner. Not rolled there but flew in the air and landed there.

Tanner fixed his three wheeler and he rode it around yesterday afternoon. I love watching him play with our girls and I love to see their excitement for Daddy.

Riding on two wheels!

Mylee's turn! Ever since Kendal was tiny, Tanner took her for rides on his motorcycle. His motorcycle isn't running right now, so a three wheeler is the next best thing.

Yes, her cheeks are VERY wonderful to KISS!

Tanner gave rides to the neighbor kids.

A couple days ago it rained and we let Kendal play in it for a while.

Even Mylee went out in the rain!

Mylee is starting on solid foods now. It took her a few days to really get the concept of eating. She'd always try to grab the spoon and suck on it like a bottle. Now, she's doing really well! Eating a full serving at breakfast and lunch! Dr. Santos wants me to feed a serving of rice cereal at breakfast time and a serving of greens at lunch. We've started out with green beans and Mylee LOVES them! She attacks the spoon when I bring it to her, followed by her hands smashing in her face...it's actually quite funny but also frustrating cuz she gets SO messy.

Ah! I just LOVE to kiss those cheeks!!!

This was Day 1. Not really a fan!

Well, Miss Mylee is FOUR months old TODAY! (8/2) It's taken me 3 days to finish this post! But thanks to a 5:30 pump, I couldn't fall back asleep! It sure is nice to have my home so quiet! It's a rare deal! Anyway, we went and visited Dr. Santos, who I'm really beginning to LOVE! I never really had a doctor I cared for. But now I love going to visit. I've had doctors in the past tell me how bad I'm doing with feeding my child because she was only in the 27% group for weight. It got really frustrating bouncing around from doctor to doctor. I ended up just going to the county office and getting Kendal's shots updated that way. ANYWAY, back to the story! I was able to get Kendal and Mylee's wellness check ups on the same day! Kendal's three year old stats are

Weight: 33lbs 73%

Height 39inches 90%

Miss Mylee's stats are:

Weight: 13lbs 6oz 28%

Length: 27inches 99%

Head: 18inches 99%

When Kendal was 4 months old she weighed a pound more and was a little shorter. We grow some long skinny girls over in the Buck home! :) I'm hoping to take some 4 month photos and Kendal's 3 year photos today. It's just been so hot and muggy out that I really haven't wanted to. That and the fact that after 5 minutes outside, Kendal's little face is beat red. I'm so ready for a VACATION!!

Mylee's new trick as of 8/1! We get a kick out of talking to her while her WHOLE fist is in her mouth. The chatter box still tries to talk with her mouth full. She's a funny girl!

2011-07-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

Kendal is THREE!! July 22nd was her birthday and we had a big party for her! I'm so grateful for all our friends who came to help celebrate Kendal with us! She is such a WONDERFUL little girl and we had such a wonderful party for her!

Grandma Leeann made Kendal a special cake! Grandma let Kendal lick the mixing spoons! YUM!

The inside of the cake. Very yummy!

The master at work!

(I guess I never got a photo of the finished product! I'll have to see if my mom did!)

At the party, we went swimming and had a BBQ. Pretty simple for a hot summer day!

Kendal's party was a princess party. Her and her "boy friend" as she calls Jay...She doesn't really know what a boyfriend is...just the fact she can't remember Jay's name and he's a boy. I think it's pretty smart!

Opening presents...Kendal was half alseep!! It was funny to watch her cuz she had no expression the whole time! Such a tired little girl. But the day after the party she sure had fun taking all her stuff out of boxes and playing!

Love her outfit? I tried to make it look "princess-y"

My mom has really bad feet...so after a long day of being on them she iced them. And of course, my curious daughter wanted to see what it was all about!

Everything is out of order on here but oh well. Here is another shot of how Mylee sleeps. She's not quite asleep here, almost though.

For some reason I love this photo below. She is ready for her nap and yet still flashing smiles! We LOVE our "Smiley Mylee"!

She's getting really good at grabbing EVERYTHING! She even grabs with her toes! Daddy leaned over to give her a kiss and she started touching his whiskers with her toes! It was so cute!

Mylee has been playing with her toes for a little while now. I've just had no time to myself so I haven't been able to blog. But for some reason, Kendal decided to lay on my lap today and take a nap!! BEAUTIFUL day! She NEVER EVER NEVER takes a nap. I'm soaking in this quiet time for sure!!

When I was trying to take a picture of Mylee playing with her toes, SOMEONE got a little jealous, wonder who? Kendal went and pouted in the corner. I asked her to turn around to look at me so I could get a picture of her and this is what she looked like when she turned around. She is hilarious! (She likes to be in her panites. Probably cuz it gets a little warm in our house. I don't mind. No one ever comes to visit)

Kendal's new trick. Well not really new, about a month ago she learned this on her own. Now she does it ALL THE TIME! Crazy girl!

This chore chart has saved my life! For the past month, Kendal has been sick. Luckily she is over it all now, but last month was a VERY trying month for me! Even though I knew she didn't feel well, her whining and crying really bothered me. Anytime I asked her to do something, clean up her toys, she cried. Ah! So with the idea from a friend, I made this chore chart! It really has flipped everything around. She doesn't throw fits, unless she's tired. But that's whatever. Her chores consist of:

Eating all her meals

Making her bed

Brushing her teeth

Putting clothes away

Taking a shower

And some other ones I can't think of

Simple easy day stuff that she would just cry over. Now she doesn't. If she does though, she doesn't get her "stick in her chore chart" At the end of the day, if all the chores have a stick, she gets a sticker. If she gets a sticker everyday that week, she gets something special. Haven't done this long enough for that something special. This Saturday, if she gets all her stickers, she'll get something special. We are having another birthday party for her with the Buck side. Going to Peter Piper Pizza, so we can find something special there. :)

Kendal is OCD, as I mentioned in my last post. Took some more photos of her OCD-ness. She puts away her toys now by color.

Myee playing with Kendal and letters! Right before she rolled from her tummy to her back for the FIRST time! She's rolled back to belly. Still need to try to capture that on video. She's too fast or it's not when I have my camera ready.

Another OCD thing. She lines her things up. Coloring books.

Ok, story to go with this. Tanner thought it would be fun to teach Kendal how to pose in a break dancing pose. Make sense? Basically, you lay on your arms with your stomach and lift your legs in the air. Well, after trying a few times, Kendal sort of got it. But the next day, she made her ballerina barbie do it.

And lining her barbies up too! She got these from her birthday and LOVES them :)

She is so strong and loves to be on her tummy. Well, until today when she learned how to flip over!

So life is going really good right now! Hopefully moving soon. There was some bad communication about the place we want to move to. It's a REALLY long story and I don't feel like typing it out. Basically we'll find out on the 1st of August if we're moving. Now that I have figured out more about Kendal and getting Mylee into a nice routine! Life is sweet. I do have some funny stories to share. I think they're all about Kendal....

First story...Remember how Kendal had pink eye? Well, we had to put eye drops in her eyes. 3x's a day 2 drops in each eye for a week. After doing eye drops as directed for about 4 days, I couldn't find the eye drops anymore. In a way I was sort of relieved. Putting these drops in was KILLER! Kendal screaming the whole time and us having to pry her eyes open. It was hard. Anyway, I always left them on the counter so I would know where they were. Well, after looking for a while I never found them. A few days later, like 2 days, I found the drops on the TV stand behind our thermometer. I picked it up and said to Kendal "Look what I found!" Kendal's reply was this "haha! I hid them from you!" I couldn't believe she did that! I didn't think she was THAT smart. I thought wrong!

I have been pumping now for a week. All meals. It's so nice! Some people who I tell, think I'm crazy. I don't see why. Mylee is still getting breastmilk and pumping is much easier than trying to nurse. I'm going to talk to the Dr about this at Mylee's 4 month check up. Maybe we can find a solution to fix nursing, but for now...I'm pumping every 3 hours. Mylee eats like every 5 hours and eats about 6oz every feeding. I'm pumping extra so I have milk in case she does another growth spurt and decides to eat 9oz every 3 hours! Crazy times! But I do LOVE knowing how much she eats. Anyway, back to the story. One day, can't remember what day it was, but I was making banana muffins because our bananas were about to go bad. Mylee had woken up but had fallen back asleep. Before she fell asleep though, I warmed a bottle and had it ready. But like I said she fell back asleep. I left the bottle out cuz I knew she'd be waking up soon. About 30 minutes later, she woke up. I got her out of her bed, laid her on the nursing pillow on the floor so that I could fold her bed and put it away. As I was doing this, she began to cry. My sweet Kendal rushed over, got the bottle and started to feed her! I was so impressed! Kendal feed her the whole bottle as I finished the muffins. About the time I put the muffins in the oven, Mylee was done eating. It was so awesome!!

I guess this story really isn't a story or about Kendal. But I absolutely love Mylee. She is so easy to please! The thing I love most is how easily she falls asleep. With Kendal it was so difficult. I never let her self sooth, mainly cuz I didn't want to hear her cry. But naptime was impossible. She never slept through the night. But Mylee, I just lay her in her bed and give her her binky and blanket and she's out. At night she sleeps 8 or 9 hours and is up to eat then back to bed for another 3 or 4 hours. Love this girl!

It's amazing how sweet my life is now that I've given up the computer. I really only get on when I have alone time, which is very rare! I've also made it a goal to not go to bed until my house is clean. Makes the mornings nice and the days better! Never trying to catch up because I'm always ahead! It's especially nice now that I'm pumping every 3 hours. That is somewhat time consuming. Anyway, another update this weekend, hopefully. We go in for Mylee's 4 month check up! A few days early but our insurance is up at the end of the month! Got to get her in before that is over! :)

Giggles

2011-07-24T19:32:00.001-07:00

OVERLOAD!

2011-07-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

I find it funny that I try somewhat hard to hang out with some friends. I call or send a message trying to set up a day to hang out, but it ALWAYS turns into...."I'm busy, how about another day." But we never hang out. I quickly began to get sick of this. I find it funny though because certain people say "oh ya, call me let's hang out." But then I do and nothing ever gets set up. Now know this about me, it is very difficult to go out of my way to call someone up or set something up because it's just not me. I don't feel comfortable doing this. My point I'm getting at...most these people who say they want to hang out are new friends we meet. Fourth of July weekend I realized who my good friends are. For 4th of July we hung out with 3 couples. One who was in the first ward Tanner and I were in after we were married. We've hung out with the family every now and again, but not all that often. The 2 other couples I have known growing up. But we never actually hung out, just had common friends. I find it funny that they have been friends all along, I just never saw it. Does this make sense? I always like to have friends that I can hang out with and it seems that after getting married, we really have only had one family we love to hang out with. The McDowell's! Love you guys! But...it's difficult cuz they live so far. Having friends close by is great!

Anywho....so about our 4th of July. I can sum the day up with one word. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Great friends, great food and LOTS of fun!!

Ever since Kendal had swimming lessons she has become a FISH!! And quite the daredevil! At the party she was jumping off EVERYTHING and ANYTHING and swimming EVERYWHERE! It was so fun to watch her and it was so awesome that she had little friends there to play with!! The day was perfect!

These next photos crack me up! Jay and Kendal became such great friends this day and followed each other everywhere. So why not be crazy and jump off things together!?

My sweet Mylee. She enjoyed swimming for a while but it sure wore her out. She crashed on me while still in the pool Such a sweetie!

Being crazy with Daddy now. He must have launched her 20 times that day. It was fun!

This was taken about 5 minutes after leaving the pool party!

After hanging out all morning with friends, we met up again for fireworks.

"Look Mommy! Fireworks!"

My lame excuse for firework photos. I've never taken any before so these are good.

Now...on to the week....

So It's been a while since I've updated...this is why...I've said in previous posts that Kendal is CRAZY busy. And if I even sit down for ONE minute she is into something. So...I'm only getting on the computer when I make Tanner take Kendal to nap with him on Sundays. Once a week, I get ME TIME! This week was..um...HARD! My poor Kendal has been sick since the end of June. We went to an indoor playground and from there we all have been sick. NEVER going back. I'm now a paranoid freak who uses hand sanitizer 24/7. Well, Kendal has had a cold for three weeks. Some weeks it was worse, others it was sort of gone. This past week was the worst yet. After only getting a few hours of sleep at night due to Kendal and her nightmares Friday morning I decided to finally take her to the doctors. I've never had to take her in because of sickness before so I really didn't know WHEN the right time was. But after waking up Friday morning, her eyes looked as though she was getting pink eye. So I called the doctor right as they opened. We scheduled for 3:15. She had "the runs" all day and messed her pants once. Not fun. We got to the doctor and found out she had an ear infection, pink eye in both eyes, a fever along with her cold she's had for 3 weeks. My heart just broke! I had no clue she was this sick. We got her some medicine and after 48 hours, her pink eye is gone and fever seems to be gone, but it does come back in the evening. I really really hope she is 100% better by Friday for her birthday and party! Poor girl! I can't believe that she wasn't complaining about her ear though...I would assume it was bugging her and if she would have said anything I would've gone to the doctor right away. But I had no clue! So after a week...more like three weeks...of crying 24/7...even in her dreams...and horrible night terrors...I think I've had my fill of this sickness crap! What makes me laugh...even through all Kendal's crying, nightmares and just flat out not feeling well...she wouldn't just sit and rest! She was so busy and always wanting to play. Which is fine cuz that's how she normally is....but I would think if one didn't feel well, one would just want to sit and relax. Although, this week she has snuggled a whole lot more and I learned that when she is crying...and this crying is not like a fit...she sincerely is sad....I just have to sit and "love on her" as she says. I can't count the times that Kendal has cried for me to just sit and love on her...aka...snuggle. It really did break my heart to hear her so sadly ask just to snuggle. I guess the Lord really gave me what I wanted. I had mentioned last post about how much I missed rocking Kendal to sleep and how bad I felt about getting so frustrated with it...I definitely got what I asked for this week...but I didn't even ask for it! I was really hard to not get frustrated, and I did a lot this week, with Kendal and her crying for everything. I especially hate it when we are out in public or out at someone else's house. I feel I have to explain or hurry to hush Kendal so they don't have to hear her crying. I feel they all judge me and watch my every move. Who knows if they really do or not, but that's just how I feel. I also am so sick of Kendal being pushed away by people. It's hard to see Kendal being told to "be quiet" or "get out of the way" by the people she loves most. I know she is overly busy. I know she needs a lot of attention...but DANG! She just wants to play! What's more important...your dumb show or Kendal who is just trying to get your attention to tell you something or to play. It's really hard when family does this. I know I have done this too...but I'm learning and I try hard not to do it. I have given up a lot of things so that I can spend more time making memories with my Kendal. Facebook is gone. This I only update once a week. Kendal needs me and needs friends. Friends whether it's family or not. I'm not going to make excuses anymore. I'm tired of just letting people push Kendal away and get frustrated with her. Yes, she is crazy busy and it sometimes can be annoying...but dang...she likes to have fun. And yes, my three year old still cries. Sometimes that's the best she can do as she tries to tell us what she needs. I don't care anymore. It is what it is. Accept it. (Sorry....I didn't intend on writing this...but it does feel good to get it out.) I really honestly feel so bad for Kendal. My current ward doesn't really have any kids her age...and the few her age live far. I'm really hoping this new ward has kids her age. She needs friends. Although...she does have her imaginary friends..."Howel, monkey and kitty cat" She plays with them all the time. It really is fun to watch her and her wild imagination. Kendal amazes me. She says some of the funniest things and is really just a smart girl. Her birthday is Friday and I can't wait for her party. We are having lots of friends come over and play. She will love it!

This week I spent most my days trying to keep Kendal busy. I really think I can do better though. Anyway, This week I started doing "lessons" with her. She has practiced tracing her shapes. And also learned about staying in the lines when she colors. I'm a bad mom and just now teaching her stuff. I will admit...I put a lot of other things in front of Kendal. But I am learning my lesson and she comes first. We are both happier when that happens.

Day 2 of "lessons" she sat for a long while just ripping the paper off the crayons. She's a funny girl...I'll explain why later down a little. Just remember OCD! haha

Kendal LOVES her little sister. Always wanting to help with things. This week as been a huge battle of trying to keep Kendal away from Mylee so Mylee won't get sick. But I'm so happy that Kendal is doing better and I don't have to be so bossy and controlling anymore!

I always love hearing Kendal tell me "Mom, isn't Mylee just so amazing." I love it! And I hope her love for Mylee will continue as the years pass.

There was a day this week where is was bearable to be outside. So after being cooped up for like a month...we went out and played for a while. Kendal loves it outside, but I'm a wuss with the heat...like 110+ is just too hot to move...but this day was around 95 or so. Kendal played in her sand box I made her for an hour or so before lunch. After lunch...I wussed out and we just played inside.

Grandma Sandra got her this Strawberry Shortcake dolly and Kendal LOVES it! It goes EVERYWHERE with us. I love how Kendal does things to it that I do to Kendal. Like for treating Kendal's pink eye I have to put eye drops in 3 times a day. Well, you can guess what Kendal does now to her dolly. It's so funny.

Lately Kendal has been learning about volleyball. I played all through high school and one year of college so I can only hope that she'll get Tanner's height and my talent. I've been teaching her how to properly hold her hands and how to pass the ball. It really makes me happy that she is catching on so fast! So coach able at such a young age! ;)

Crazy Kid!

Kendal thinks it's fun to use her legos as skates. No clue where she learned about skates from...probably Super Why on PBS...but I think it's hilarious! She "skates" all around on the floor.

Such a princess!!

Now on to her OCD thing...I'm not sure I've mentioned this before...but Kendal bits her nails, picks her scabs, hangnails or really any imperfection on her body. So after Daddy showed her his REALLY bad sunburn he got and now was peeling REALLY bad...Kendal enjoyed picking at the skin! YUCK! But it is what it is.

Saturday we went to my parent's house so Tanner could fix my sister's car. Kendal wanted to go swimming but because of her ear infection we decided to play in the sprinklers. When we first started she didn't know what to do...so Mommy had to show her. I was not in my swim suit but I sure did have fun trying to keep cool!

With Kendal being so sick, she has napped a few times. After playing in the sprinklers for a little bit she came in, got her eye drops and I told her to lay down with her eyes clothed so the medicine could help make her eyes better...well....she crashed.

Now on to Miss Mylee...with Kendal being so sick and Daddy being so sick...I'm so grateful Mylee has not caught anything but a little stuffy nose. Mylee is a perfect child. We have gone to strickly bottle feeding now. I made this decision about 4 days ago after I spent all day feeding Mylee every 2 hours, growth spurt, and with every feeding she struggled so bad. No clue why...but her feeding source was bleeding and so extremely sore. So I have been pumping for 4 days and bottle feeding and LOVE it. She takes the bottle so much better than she has ever taken the boob. So happy about this. And my breasts have healed from that day of ripping them apart. Mylee is tooting and pooping better again. She still has a fussy time where she just flat out screams...but I can normally get her to calm down by holding her tummy on my forearm and up rocking back and forth. It amazes me that I have been able to find all these little things here and there to help Mylee stay happy or in less pain. It really is awesome. This week has also been a milestone breaking week. Mylee rolled over on Monday for the first time! Just barely at 3 months old!! This kind of scares me! It was sure cute to see her facial expressions after she rolled...it was that "what the heck just happened" kind of look. She has rolled over a few more times since Monday but her new thing to do is just to roll her lower half of her body to her tummy and her upper body stays laying on her side. She looks so twisted! Mylee is also giggling a whole lot more this week. I'm not sure if Tanner has gotten her to giggle, but man...she sure giggles at me! I think she is a Mommy's girl for sure! And I love every minute of it! She really makes my life complete. I think that's kind of all of her new tricks she's learned this week. Time is just flying by. If you haven't noticed already but I am taking my camera every where I go and taking a million pictures as we go. In the month of July I have already taken over 700 pictures. Most of which are me trying to capture a smile from Mylee, she loses me once I go behind the camera so I don't really get smiles...that's when I switch to video mode.) Mylee is talking up a storm these days! I'm grateful that I have video because I love looking back at Kendal's videos.

Mylee is just like her sister when it comes to blankets! She is such a blanket girl! It cracks me up. I go to lay her down for a nap/bedtime, lay a blanket by/on her face and she is out. That is opposite from Kendal though. Kendal NEVER self soothed and that's the only way Mylee falls asleep.

See...no smiles for me when I'm behind the camera!

I missed her rolling over the second time...but look how strong she is getting!!! Isn't she still only a week old?! How did time fly by so fast!!

I love the fact that both my girls loved to play with their hands. Mylee and Kendal both always had their hands by their face.

Or...in their mouth! Kendal not so much. But Mylee always is trying to find her thumb. I won't let her though :)

So...the other day...the day Mylee was eating every 2 hours and ripping me apart. I feared that she wasn't getting enough to eat. I tried formula...no way she was taking that. So I tried rice cereal. Yes, I KNOW it's early and I only gave it to her once...WHY DO I FEEL THE NEED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF...who cares...it was a decision I made. Don't judge lol

Anyway....So we tried rice cereal and she LOVED it! I only gave it to her one day but doctor wants me to start baby food at four months..so only a few weeks away. I took some photos of her eating...pretty dang cute.

Her shirt says "Smile if you think I'm cute." I smile every time I see this picture. Cracks me up!

First bite...not so sure about it. But she did enjoy a few more bits!

With Mylee not smiling at me when I put the camera up to my face, I have to get Daddy's help.

hahaha this picture above was taken right after Daddy was kissing her with his pokey face. Got to love his beard!

And finally...a photo of her twisted up. This is how she lays pretty much the whole time she is on the floor...unless she rolls completely over, the obviously she gets lots of tummy time!

Thought it was cute how she was relaxing in her stroller.

Tanner, along with myself, has been sick for about two weeks. I was sick for a week then he got sick. I'm pretty much over it all...but Tanner not so much. I think the fact that his new office at his new job is just covered in dust. Probably doesn't help. Speaking of his new job...he is loving it! Or at least I think so. A little background on this new job...he is the head mechanic at a golf course. Doing what he has done for the past 2 years...just a different place and he's the only mechanic. No one to boss him around and Tanner is able to run the shop how he wants to. Raven is the name of the golf course. So...background on Raven...let's see if I get this right...it's confusing. Back when the market crashed along with everything else, Raven hit hard. Went bankrupted and owed lots of money to lots of people. After a few years of struggling the sold the course to the current owners. This selling of the company just recently happened which is why there was a spot for Tanner. Tanner now has to basically rebuild the company name and all the equipment. Everything is broken there and he doesn't have any tools to fix them...makes it sort of difficult. He is extremely busy during the day, which is so good for him, and he is able to make decisions based what he feels is best, which is also really good for him.

I am an amazing wife. Believe it. Look what Tanner bought himself.

It's a 22 and fun to shoot! After he bought the gun we went out shooting...of course!

Kendal enjoyed collecting all the shells. Seems to be a popular place to shoot now...they've made restrictions and the only places to shoot are here and at a shooting range.

Don't freak out yet...this gun is super quiet and has no kick. Kendal shot it four times and then was done.

The whole time while we were out shooting, Mylee was smiling and talking to herself. She is awesome!

Mommy had to try out the new gun! (Don't judge the weight. You know you will....lol...I stopped working out due to the fear of losing breastmilk...so no working out for me for a while. This is by choice.)

Shooting my little 22 revolver.

2011-07-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know where to start typing...but I have a lot to write tonight. It seems the last month or so, I sunk into another depression. I had done this after having Kendal and it lasted almost 2 1/2 years. I got better and I watched myself slip again. I'm not sure how I was able to get out of it so quickly, but I'm back out of it again. Even though I suffered a very long and hard day with a very high fever and now getting strep or something. I still feel I am able to keep my spirits up...unless I only get 4 hours of sleep like I did last night. Not because of Mylee...but Kendal. She is having such bad terrors now. I feel so bad for her. Scared of things that aren't there. She is scared even in daylight! Trying my best to be patient with her. I feel I can connect with this because when I was younger, I did the same thing.

Back to this depression....I had a revelation this week. In 3 months I will be 25 years old! That is OLD! When I look in the mirror, I still think of myself as 18 years old. I think me realizing that I will be "old" really helped me mature over night. Crazy to think about, but glad it helped me. Something else that has helped me was realizing how fast time is flying and how fast things change. When Kendal was little, I used to rock her to sleep. When she hit a certain age I began to dislike this. I go so frustrated with the fact that all my friends' kids could fall asleep on their own. But my Kendal, she need to be rocked for an hour. The other day, and probably after a year of not rocking Kendal to sleep, Kendal woke up from a nap and rushed to me to have me pick her up. As I held her, craddling her, rocking back and forth, I realized HOW BAD I missed that! She has grown so much since I last held her like that. I started crying as she fell back asleep. Why did I ever care so much about how she got to sleep. I really am punching myself now. I now take all the time I can do be with her.

With this, I'm realizing that there is a lot of things I want to do as a parent with my children. I haven't been the best mom do to anger issues, but I am learning and really managing that anger. I want my girls to know who their Savior is and what He did for them. I want them to know with all their heart that He loves them and is there for them. We started listening to General Conference talks and Kendal is really liking The Testaments. I love how only after watching it one time, she knows what's going on. The sign of Jesus' birth, Jesus being baptized and so on. It really makes me happy to hear her talk about Jesus. We have decided to not let her watch movies anymore. Thanks to Toy Story, Kendal has called me a "stupid idiot" and thanks to Nemo she's told me she "hates" me. Obviously she does not know what that means...but I definitely do not like it. Besides...she plays a whole lot better and listens better when the TV is off. It's nice.

My wonderful husband, Tanner, got a new job! He was hired before he even applied! It's so funny the way things work. Tanner has been wanting to get a new job for quite a while now but really hadn't done much about it. About a month ago he heard about this other job through a guy at his current employer. Tanner applied for it but didn't get it. But with Tanner applying for it, big bosses at Desert Mountain, his current job, heard that he wanted to move up. So last week, Tanner's supervisor gave Tanner's name to a Vice President of a different golf course who was looking for a head mechanic. The VP called Tanner and that same day we went out and met some people who worked at the golf course. After leaving, Tanner called the VP back and said "I'll take the job" and got it right like that! It truly was amazing. This new job, Tanner will be the only mechanic and will be able to run the shop how he wants to. No one there to boss him around. He can make the calls on everything. This is exactly what he needs! Once again, funny how things work. I'm so thrilled for him!

With a new job, comes a move! We looked and looked for a nice place. There are only a handful of RV parks in the valley and of that handful we found ONE that is nice. The one bad thing about living in a trailer is that most people who live in trailers...are redneck...and not a funny nor good kind. This new place we found is a mobile home park that has a few hook ups for trailers. They have one spot opening the first of August, so that is when we move! Very excited because at this new place, there is a park, pool and a laundromat.

Kendal has been fussy lately. Not just because she got sick...but because we haven't been loving her in the way she needs. Her "love language". Now that I've realized this, it's going better. Day by day it'll get even better. We do have bad days though. My fault for sure. I get caught up in the world and I really forget what really matters.

Kendal loves to play with playdough...and I never really get it out for her, but with me spending more time with her, we have gotten her crafts and such out again.

She thought it was funny that she made the farmer look like Uncle Tim. (He has dreads)

Kendal likes to take showers now. She found out that by plugging up the drain, she can also take a bath! I went to check on her and the tub was almost FULL! Oops!

Mylee loves to lay on her side. She comes very close to rolling over...but she's not quite there yet!

Mylee girl is 3 months old!! I cannot believe it's been 3 months already! Here are a few shots we took...I want to take more when she is happier! :) Love this little girl. She is seriously the best baby ever! After I feed her, I lay her down with some toys. I usually play with Kendal or get some things done. The next thing I see, is little Mylee fast asleep. Totally opposite from Kendal. I had to rock Kendal to sleep and if she woke up she would be sooo grumpy. Little Mylee, if she gets woken up...and that's a big IF, she's a heavy sleeper, she can comfort herself back to sleep. It's SOOO nice!

I absolutely love this little girl. She is just the happiest baby. Always smiling at me..unless I have a camera! She's learning already! I thank my Heavenly Father every day for her.

Mylee was still having difficulties nursing, so I tried another nipple for a bottle and she took it! I now pump and she eats from a bottle. It's nice to see how much she eats. And I'm realizing she eats so much better now that she eats from a bottle. It's very nice!

Mylee is also talking up a storm! We haven't gotten a very good video but here is a cute video of her being a little crazy.

Kendal's First REAL Hair Cut!

2011-06-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well...almost 3 years of Kendal's hair growing...I thought it was about time for a cut. Her hair is always soo knotty in the mornings and just a pain to brush. So...off it went! I wasn't too sad over this. More excited for less work with her crazy hair!

The morning of the hair cut:

Kendal gets a little nervous when it comes to new things. She'll still do them...just hesitant at first. So after her morning shower, I took Daddy's hair scissors and showed her what Miss Anika was going to do. I explain that it doesn't hurt at all and after wards her hair will be so pretty. When we got to the salon, she kept saying she was scared. We've been really working on making Kendal use words to describe feelings instead of crying, DRIVES ME NUTS! So now with everything..."this makes me sad" "this makes me happy" she is always telling me. It's great though! Anika took us back and Kendal was scared to sit on the booster seat on the chair. We had to slowly work with her and little by little she got in the chair and put her "super hero cape" on.

Before.

You can tell in the photo that Kendal was a little nervous about what Miss Anika was going to do. But Kendal didn't cry like I thought she would!

Miss Anika let Kendal hold the pink spray bottle. It helped Kendal sort of hold still....she is just a busy bee!

Getting her hair blow dried!

She was smiling at herself in the mirror...I missed it though!

Kendal loves to sweep and wanted to help clean up her hair.

I love how social Kendal is. She is always so happy and loves meeting new people. The whole time Miss Anika was cutting Kendal's hair, Kendal was just chatting away. Funny story....towards the end, Miss Anika spun the chair a little and Kendal says "Whee..that was fun" So Miss Anika spun it more and Kendal fell over. Kendal goes on to tell Miss Anika that spinning the chair like that is "dangerous"!! Oh the things these kids pick up!

After!

She's got the best smile! When it's not FORCED!

Isn't the cut so cute! I love it! I can't wait to see what her hair will look like in the morning! Hopefully not like a rat's nest! :)

More Swimming!

2011-06-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I had a photo shoot with my sister and her hubby! They live out by my parent's so after taking photos, we went swimming! We did a little lesson with Kendal and she did sooo good! She swam from the stairs to the wall all by herself! It was so awesome to see that even after a week of not swimming she still remembered what to do! AND she didn't cry! Only when we made her jump off the diving board! But 100% better than during her lessons before! Go Kendal!

My parent's dog, Percy, was scared of Tanner while he was wearing his goggles. He would run around the pool as Tanner swam. He's a funny dog.

She is just so beautiful!!

Going under ALL by herself!

Kendal turned how to spin while in her tube!

Going under water all by herself. Funny how she plugs her nose!

Swimming with Daddy!

Jumping off the side!

Trying to get her to jump in with out the tube!

Jumping off the diving board!

10 Week Mylee

2011-06-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

Wasn't it just yesterday when I was so very uncomfortably huge and pregnant with Mylee? Man, time is sure slipping away from me!

Mylee is seriously a perfect baby. She sleeps 9 hours at night, every night. She eats every 4 or 5 hours during the day. Kendal never really got on a schedule like that!

We are still learning how to eat...she still has a difficult time, but she really has improved! Which is probably why she can sleep so long at night! She works perfectly with my schedule. I think she must not like nursing as much as I do out in public...I've really only had to nurse in public while we were at Six Flags and even then she ate right before we had lunch. She wakes up to eat 45 min before we leave to go somewhere and doesn't need to eat til we get back. Maybe that's just great planning by me...which I'm SO great at...(Sarcasm)

Mylee had her two month check up 2 weeks ago! (see how far behind I am!) Her stats were:

Weight: 11lbs 4oz 51%

Height: 24.5in 98%

Head: 16.5in 97%

Her stats look just like Kendal's! Pretty funny!

Mylee is talking up a storm these days! Espcially after her 5am feeding! I love our quiet time together!

Miss Mylee is sooo smiley! We call her smiley Mylee. She loves to have her toes kissed and thinks it's the funniest thing. I will get that on video as well! Mylee loves to watch everything around her. She's so calm and just watches our every move. She sure loves her Daddy! When Tanner comes home from work and when she hears his voice, she kind of do a jump and then start kicking and talking and smiling! So awesome!

She is starting to entertain herself and loves her toys! I put her in the bouncer a lot, don't trust Kendal when Mylee is on the floor and I'm busy doing something. Just yesterday Mylee started talking to her toys on the bouncer. She has talked to her blanket before but I didn't have a camera near to photograph it.

She is just the happiest baby and hardly cries. And if she does cry, it's because she's ready for a nap. All we have to do is lay her down, give her her binky and put a blanket over her face and then she's out! It that not perfect? I love this little girl. She completes our family!

With Mylee being 10 weeks, I did take some photos!

Lots of Posts Today!

2011-06-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

I have posted the rest of swimming lessons and our trip to California!

This past week I had a friend who past away. It was such a heartbreaking tragedy. With all tragedies, or at least this is how it is for me, MY own eyes are opened. I love a little stronger and laugh more. We have no idea how long we have here on earth with our family. I now want to spend all the time I can as a family making memories! With this tragedy, my eyes were opened to what I really enjoy in life. I really do love photography and saving memories that way....but what I really love is service! Sometimes working with people can be amazing...but other times...not so much. I realized this past week...that if I'm serving someone in need...dealing with this not so fun people doesn't hit me as hard! Let me explain what I'm doing...although I'm sure you've seen cuz it's all over my facebook. Every session I have I am donating $100 of the $150 session fee to my friend's fund. I have a goal of $1000! I know I can do this! I really want to do this! And with me really wanting to do this my mindset is different now about the money. Before it was, I like the money but it stresses me out. NOW, I know most the money is going somewhere way more important! I love this feeling soo much! I love knowing that I am using my talents for someone else's needs. It really just makes everything 100 times better! I have always been told that serving someone in need will make me feel happier....but I never knew I would be THIS happy. This family that lost their son is such an amazing family! We've known them forever! My brothers played baseball for years with all of the Parks' boys! Most of you probably know them! Joy and Jerry's son is the one who passed away, Tyler Parks. If you want more information on how to help me reach my goal please email me. emilybuckphotography@gmail.com or visit my website HERE Like I said before, sessions are $150 and $100 of that will go directly to The Parks Family! I will post on the side of my blog the money I've raised so far! If you would like to donate but can't afford the $150 please still email me and we can work something out!

On to the now...
Tanner is trying to find a job. We recently got news that he didn't get the job he applied for. We were very upset about this. I feel so bad for Tanner. The place he works is so CROOKED and SCREWED up. Tanner's boss told him that he can't stand Tanner just because of Tanner's personality. I really hate this place and hate seeing my husband being treated like this. Please keep him in your prayers and pray we find a new job soon!

Kendal is doing well! We are having lots of fun playing and learning. She is quit a handful all the time, and we are still learning to deal with her. She is extremely busy and gets bored super fast. She is going to be THREE YEARS OLD in a month!!! I'm not old enough to have a three year old!! What I am going to do!? I get very sad thinking about my Kendal girl. I was in a horrible depression most of her life and sadly can't remember much about her younger years. I feel horrible this happened and I need to find a way to get that time back with her. I love her so much. I'm trying figure out what to do for her birthday party! I want her to have lots of fun and lots of friends over! Better get to planning!! :)

Miss Mylee is amazing. Growing so fast! She'll be 10 weeks old tomorrow!!! She is getting on a great schedule already! She eats every 4 hours during the day and sleeps for 9 hours at night!! Mylee is getting close to rolling over! Mainly because she lays on her side all the time! She is also starting to grab things! Her face is so cute when she is focusing on grabbing something in front of her. After eating her first meal of the day, she stays awake for 3 hours and is just the happiest thing! Talking like crazy to everything, big smiles. I love it! I got a video of her this morning. BUT dang blogger won't let me upload it on here...so over to youtube I go! Here is the video of Mylee talking!! Isn't she just the sweetest thing???

California!!!!

2011-06-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

California is THE place to be...on vacation! Definitely don't want to live there. I like living where we do...no traffic..until you get in town. But by us...it's so quiet and nice. California...way too busy and way too many crazy drivers. I must admit though, as soon as we crossed the AZ/CA border...Tanner man....he turned into a CA driver! AH! He had fun and kept us safe though. He likes driving our small car so he can pass traffic and drive likes he's in the NASCAR.

We went to California with some good friends of ours! Cory and Amy! Tanner has known Cory since they were 5ish? Crazy how they've been able to keep in touch after all these years! After 4 years of marriage, we all have become great friends!

We were only able to spend 2 full days in CA. But, it was a really nice get a way! On Sunday we went to the beach! We were shooting for Santa Monica...but with road closures due to concerts going on or something...we ended up at Venice Beach. Very beautiful! Mylee was sort of fussy while we were at the beach so we only stayed for a little while. I think that was the first time Mylee has been fussy enough for us to have to leave somewhere. I learned with Kendal that I don't like to be in public while nursing or when my child is fussy. Not fun for anyone. Mylee did fall asleep while at the beach though so we did spend time there. Just after an hour or so...we were all ready to go and Mylee did wake up fussy again. So we left. We drove to our hotel and unloaded...I wanted to tell a story about how we packed our car FULL for only a 2 day 1 night trip...but I really can't. I can't even say why. Not when my blog isn't private. So if you're REALLY dying to know you can email me. But if/when I ever print my blog into a book...I will write the story. But for now....skipping to the next thing...

Playing in the waves! First time for Kendal! She didn't really like it!

So she came back to get her beloved tube!

Daddy teaching her how to jump over the wave!

Kendal and Tanner were out playing in the beach. Tanner later showed Kendal the little sand crab things by the shore...

They put a few of the crabs in a toy and Kendal ran back to show me!

The crabs!

I love just watching Kendal and Tanner. Especially when they are together! I'm so blessed to have them in my life!

After getting unloaded, we drove around. The next day we were going to be going to SIX FLAGS, which was only a few miles down the road from our hotel. So decided to drive down there and watch from the outside. Watching made it more real and made us super excited!

Day 2! We woke up early and got ready for the day! Our friends Cory and Amy didn't get in until late late at night. I didn't even hear them come in! We ate breakfast and headed to SIX FLAGS! There were lots of people this year! Last summer when we went we bought a Flash Pass and I felt we got to ride more rides. But this year we did spend more time in the rides for Kendal. I loved watching her have to so much fun!

Kendal's favorite ride! She rode it several times!

The first time though, she was a little nervous, so daddy rode with her! :)

This is a pretty big rollercoaster! Little Kendal did awesome on it!

I love this photo! All these "big kids" and then little Kendal! So brave!

I am so grateful for my telephoto lens!!

Tanner and Cory after riding Goliath! Amy and I rode next! SO MUCH FUN!

Kendal loves Merry-go-rounds! She wasn't smiling at me cuz she was in conversation with Cory.

Miss Mylee did AMAZING on this trip! Slept all the way there and on the ride back! While we were at Six Flags, she conveniently ate when we did. Didn't cry ONCE at the park! She is seriously the best baby! I love her sooo stinken much!

Kendal riding her favorite ride! Wouldn't let me post this by the pics!

I love how Kendal really isn't scared of anything/anyone. Sometimes that can be good and bad. But she ran right up to these guys for a hug! I was scared of stuff like this growing up!

This was the cheapest trip we have ever taken! A certain something paid for gas...this is what I was talking about at the beginning...I can't say on here...lol....our friend's Cory and Amy had season passes to Six Flags and got us in for free! And we split the hotel cost! We had a blast and are already planning another trip next month!!

Day 5 of Swimming Lessons!

2011-06-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

Kendal did really well on the last day! Still screams the whole time! But she swam across the pool and jumped off the diving board several times! We could have done another week...but couldn't afford it. It was only $40 for a week...but couldn't afford another. But it's ok because I learned what I needed to teach Kendal and Kendal learned how to swim! It's so fun to watch from day 1 to day 5 and see the progress!

I have another video but it looks like it is too long to post on here. Check it out here! But for now here is Day 5! Is did so well and I'm so proud of her! Yes...she did kick and scream the whole time BUT she is already doing better with swimming when I take her! On Saturday we went to my parent's house and went swimming. She learned how to go under water ALL BY HERSELF. Grandma Leeann also bought Kendal a tube. After swimming all day, Kendal got brave enough to jump in all by herself with her tube on! The last time though...she wanted to show Grandma and Papa that she could jump in...she tried to jump OVER a live bee that was slowly drowning. Well, she jumped in and with the splash the bee landed on Kendal's arm. Of course Kendal freaked out, and when she did, the bee stung her. I jumped in and got her to the stairs. The bee's stinger was in her arm. Luckily it didn't swell at all and I had to force Kendal to sit for 5 minutes so we can keep ice on the sting. She was a trooper and wanted to go back playing after we took the stinger out. She's one tough cookie!

Here's a short clip from my phone of Kendal jumping in!

Day 4 of Swimming Lessons!

2011-06-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

Kendal jumped off the diving board today! For the first time in swimming lessons. I loved how Mrs. Julieann didn't care if Kendal was crying, she still tossed her in. Before swimming lessons this morning though, Kendal was crying and saying "I don't want to go see Mrs. Julieann today." Well, sorry sister! But we have to learn to swim!

Compared to yesterday...Kendal did really well falling off the side and turning to get the wall. Much faster today! She is still doing the bicycle kicks, but she isn't getting help from Mrs. Julieann. It's funny to watch, but Kendal can swim all by herself...she just runs out of air and then finally kicks hard enough to get to the side. Guess she has to learn the hard way! That's pretty much how she has to learn everything.

Kendal screams during the lesson, but as soon as she is done she's completely fine. I'm so glad she at least likes being in her tube! And there are friends there to swim with!

Kendal is such a goof.

Today Kendal moved closer and closer to jumping off the diving board. Obviously from this picture below, she didn't like that.

She did jump off, I think I took video here. Wanted Tanner to see as well :) It will be posted at the end.

Today Kendal did another new trick. Mrs. Julieann put a green ring on the third step. Kendal had to swim under water to get it. Of course, she was helped most the time...but she did get it!

More jumping off the side!

It's so fun to see the action shots and to see her getting the swimming down! She is such a fast learner and so funny! I uploaded some videos. After Kendal would come up from under the water, she would just start crying, even though nothing was wrong. Mrs. Julieann would tell Kendal to take a deep breath and relax, Kendal would. But it was a very dramatic breath.

Kendal going under water to get the ring.

Day 3 of Swimming Lessons!

2011-06-17T06:50:00.000-07:00

Well, day 3 was worse than day 2! I thought Kendal would be getting used to lessons by now! Nope! There was lots of swallowing water today and lots of big burps from swallowing! Poor thing!

She still only reaches with one hand. She occasionally slipped back off and had to struggle to get the wall again. One improvement to day was that she actually opened her eyes under water! We had practiced with Uncle Ben in his pool. She put on goggles and she and Ben went under water together. While under water, Ben made faces and when Kendal came back up we asked her what Ben was doing. After a little while, she wasn't scared to open her eyes.

Day 3 was also the first day Kendal jumped off the side! Of course not voluntary, but still she did it! On day 2, I guess she did go in from the side...but she was sitting. Today just was standing and Mrs. Julieann was out of the water. It was a big step for Kendal.

Kendal just needed a little help! But I'm sure she'll get it down by Friday!

I took more videos today because I wanted to show Tanner Kendal's progress. Plus, in videos you can see her screaming, burping and cuteness!

This first video is just the normal swimming to the side. Mrs. Juliann isn't too far from the wall but Kendal is getting the hang of it!

In this video, Mrs. Julieann is teaching Kendal what to do if she were to ever fall in the pool. Main thing is to turn and reach for the side!

This last video is Kendal jumping off the side. If you listen closely, right after she gets up from being under the water, she belches! Hopefully by Friday she won't need as much help jumping in!

Day TWO of Swimming Lessons!

2011-06-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today was MUCH better at swimming lessons. Although, she did whimper a lot before we even left for the lessons. She was scared so we talked all the way to the lessons about why she needs to learn to swim. We came up with the idea of her pretending to be like the Little Mermaid and swim under water like her. I think that helped her a lot. When she first of in the pool she told her teacher that she was pretending to be the Little Mermaid and that she wanted to swim under water like her. Of course...as soon as she went under water...she came up screaming!

Notice she has a new swim suit on....This was given to us by a friend we met at lessons on day 1. Kendal is so tall that her swim suits become thong like on her bum. She we tried out a 4t. This suit fit perfectly in length but not so much around her chest. The straps kept sliding down. But we did however, try a few more and then just decided to buy a two piece. I found a super cute one that is modest and covers her booty! Ya!

Reaching for the wall...notice she isn't crying and she's already been under water! Ya for improvements! If you also notice her little mouth. This is how Mrs. Julieann teaches to close your mouth so you won't get water inside. Kind of fun to see something simple being put into action....already so coach-able! Just what Mommy wants! :)

Kendal hasn't really grasped the concept of kicking BEHIND her. She does the bicycle kick. That's where they kick and kick so hard but it's under them and it's in a bicycle motion. Mrs. Julieann told me it's normal and we're working with her on it.

She did cry after swimming to the wall, but Mrs. Julieann was able to calm her down before going again.

"Now Kendal, take a deep breathe..." It was funny to hear her breathe cuz she's very loud about it...she's still sort of crying during the breath.

Relax Kendal! Take another breathe!

She only reaches for the wall with one hand. If she doesn't get the wall soon enough, she starts reaching back for Mrs. Julieann. When she does that, she usually just sits under water riding the bike.

HAHA! She kept trying to escape today!

"Choo-Choo!"

Now, on day 1...she did NOT want to float. She hurried out and sat on my lap til her next turn. Day 2 however, she NEVER got out of the pool!! Hooray!

She found someone's goggles and wanted to try them on. She only left them on for a few minutes.

Another turn! Notice her new suit and still a thong!

And she still screams after coming up from under the water!

She's trying soo hard! She'll get it soon! She's awesome!

Once again loves swimming in her tube!

Videos of Day 2. A whole lot better than day 1!

Day ONE of Swimming Lessons!

2011-06-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

I had better hurry and post about each day because today is already day 2 and it was WAY better than day one!! It's so much fun to watch my girls grow! Being a mommy to two girls is so much fun! I decided to put Kendal in swimming lessons, really the only reason is because I needed to get her out of the house! She is SUCH a busy bee! She just loves doing new things and learning all about it.

With swimming, we've been trying to explain that she needs to learn to swim JUST IN CASE she were to ever fall in the pool and no one is there to "save her life" (She's big on saying that recently. Probably got it from a show) Anyway, I really don't think she will ever be unattended near a pool, mainly cuz I'm so paranoid about her drowning...but I honestly think a lot more people should be as paranoid as me....just so we don't have to hear on the news how many drownings there are! Makes me sick!

Day one of lessons was....um....she screamed the whole time! When she first went in the water, she was really enjoying it. Listening to the teacher really well. Then it came time to go under water...that's where it blew up! After that she no longer wanted to swim! Screamed bloody murder...really...I have a video of it below! I've NEVER heard her scream THAT loud before! Poor thing! But, she has to learn! I thought I'd be such a baby when I'd hear and see Kendal struggling to swim. But I guess I'm not as paranoid as I thought! The lady teaching is really great with Kendal and really has figured Kendal out, which helps Kendal calm down and listen. I'm glad we're doing this!

Here are some photos of Day 1!

My babies are so pale....got to lather up in sunscreen!

Kendal "relaxing" before her turn!

Kendal's new friend. Mr. Turtle....forgot the turtles real name.

Walking along side the pool...we call it the "monkey" Mrs. Julieann calls it the "choo-choo" :)

Learning to kick. See...she's not screaming...yet!

And then it happens...time to go under the water! Mrs. Julieann showed Kendal first and then had Kendal do it.

"Mommy, SAVE ME!"

The kids in the class get 3 10ish minute turns. After their turn, they are encouraged to stay in the floaty and kick around until their next turn. Day one...Kendal said NO WAY!

Daddy tried pushing her out but she came right back and climbed out!

My sweet baby girl! She is seriously so awesome!

Kendal didn't mind playing on the steps after her first turn. But after her second she wanted to snuggle.

After her first turn....she was still pretty happy. Sat on my lap for a few minutes and then wanted to play on the steps.

More swimming!

And more going under....

After her second turn! She wasn't so happy anymore! (I sort of look mad...but I didn't realize Tanner was taking another pic :)

Round 3. She's crying!

Here is a video of her swimming....not sure what round this was. I think during her second turn!

All in all, she did pretty good for her first day! I'm excited to see how she does Friday after having a week of lessons!