Keeping up with Kyler

Just a little update. Kyler has been busy busy having fun lately, while Mom and Dad have been trying to keep up with our own busy schedules. January sure is a crazy month! Kyler loves to color, and unfortunately has already christened the walls with marker... and the recliner... and the desk... and some trimwork. Of course that's along with his face, his legs, and his hands. Oh the age of experimentation! We also had quite the ice-storm pass through, and snow that won't go away! I am officially DONE with winter, and want spring to be here now! We're also painting Kyler's big-boy bedroom, with stripes, and have some trimwork to do, but I'll post pictures when we get that done.

The big poster was SO much fun for Mommy and Kyler to color a choo-choo train on! That was like the best 2 hours of Kyler's week!

Nursery plan!

I'm SO excited to have finally found the fabric for our nursery! I want it to be mostly gender-nuetral, but then be able to have a couple accents that are boyish/girlish, so it still feels like their room, once we bring the baby home and know that it's a boy or girl. Here is the fabric I found!

Okay, so the walls are going to be painted chocolate brown on the bottom half, below the white chair-rail trim we have in there, and then a pale aqua on the above part. Then, the crib skirt and curtains will be out of the big aqua-and-white patterned material in the middle(that's my "gender nuetral" fabric). Then, I'll make a set of "boy" bumpers out of the fabrics on the left, and "girl" bumpers out of the fabric on the right. I'll be picking up an olive green crib sheet for a boy, and also a purple crib sheet for a girl. Then, after baby is born, we'll paint some dots on the walls in the coordinating colors for the gender to tie it all in better, and probably add some other accents too. I'm so excited! This way, I'll get to do the nursery in not-yellow, and I'll only have an extra bumper set and crib sheet that we won't use, which I'll either keep in case the next baby is that gender, or sell online.

Horay for the Second Trimester!

Here is a baby-bump picture, at 14 weeks on the dot(I'm now 16 and a half weeks). I'm so happy to be in my second trimester now, and feeling much MUCH better! Pretty much back to my normal self, other than the absolute necessity to soak in a warm bath just about every night. After spending a couple months on the couch and feeling like a useless, sick and emotional snacking machine - it is so nice to be back among the living! A little haiatus from life every now and then is healthy, right? Needless to say between the guilt and the boredom, and the sick-of-feeling-sick, now that I'm feeling fine it's full speed ahead - and with a baby shower to work on, piano lessons, my calling with the Young Women at church, trying to have some fun with my new sewing machine, staying on top of my work, and new-baby-related big house projects, I'm running pretty busy these days, but it feels so good!

Celebrating the Holidays

I'm always a little behind in my posts, but here it goes :)
Christmas Eve was spent at Aunt Colleen and Doug's house, with all of Kyler's cousins and Josh's mom's side of the family, exchanging gifts with Great Grandma Case, and everybody petting Colleen and Doug's snakes - which Kyler wasn't scared of at all!

Christmas Morning at our home was fun, a little hectic as we came and went, and Kyler got a little too attached to his motorized train set from Santa that getting him to open the rest of his gifts took the entire day... so we just took it slow and enjoyed things as they were opened. If you can't tell, Kyler is currently obsessed with trains, and absolutely spoiled rotten by all family members!

At Grandma and Grandpa Chapman's house on late Christmas morning, Kyler was given this huge train table set, which he refused to step away from for 3 hours! And with 14 kids opening gifts, along with each of the adults and Grandma and Grandpa, this is always quite the ordeal...

Then for New Years Eve, back at Grandma and Grandpa's house, we all stayed up until midnight, including the kids, and banged on pots and pans at the countdown - I don't know how any of us had hearing the next day! I also painted all the girls' nails that night, including some guests - what a great way to start a new year, with fresh nailpolish :)

Trip to Idaho

A little over a week before Christmas, I got to go visit my mom and sisters back in Meridian, Idaho, all by myself! The trip was planned just following my mom's sugery, so I intended on being nothing but a helpful maid and nurse, but ended up busy busy having fun with my sisters! Out to lunch every day, mongolian grill with Kimberly, Cafe Ole with Holly, and Olive Garden with Camille, and shopping shopping shopping with each of them! And getting things together for Camille's voice recital. I had such a blast, I feel so spoiled when I'm with them, though I wish I was able to spend more time with my mom!

The oldest of my sisters, Camille, is preparing to audition for the BYU music program next fall, and had this beautiful voice recital as practice. I had so much fun helping her pick out this PERFECT dress, doing her hair and nails, it was a perfect night. She sounded absolutely beautiful, and brought tears to my eyes by surprising me with a dedication towards the end of the recital, my favorite song, which I have dreamed of hearing her perform, "Mercy's Arms." It was a night to remember forever.