Happy 1st Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!!!

He started out so small! He was my smallest baby(by 4 ounces).

I had to call the hospital after we left because I still wasn't sure about his middle name.

I don't think he cried more than one time the entire hospital stay.

My little Kyler Leo...

He looked so skinny and small...

he grew to be one of my chubbier babies
...and now
here he is in all his sweetness



...still wearing cloth diapers

...and SO DANG CUTE!

I can't get the pictures off of my new memory card(I am not so skilled at the computer)

So Kylers birthday pictures will remain in my camera until I figure it out.

I can't believe my little boy is ONE today.

Kyler said his first word a few weeks ago-it was 'bye' and so cute. He would say 'baa' and then start waving all by himself.

Today he started clapping for the first time, and I swear he said amen after the prayer.

He is so funny.

He can be screaming mad and waiting on his food but when we bless it-EVERY time we say the blessing he is completely quiet and still until the prayer is over.

He is the biggest tease ever!

and he is such a flirt-At the rodeo last weekend for Pioneer Days, this girl sat behind us and she kept talking to Kyler and Kyler would get super goofy and smile and talk and then he would bury his face in my chest and hide and be shy and then he would do it all over again.

Kyler has made everyone around him very glad to know him and we are very special to be a part of his family.

Happy Birthday Kyler-I Love You!!

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

I am so happy to be home I could probably DO a little jig!

The life of this...

and this...

is finally over! I am so happy! We have been here for a week and I don't think we will be leaving any time soon. Poor Reggie had leave for a couple days this last week, but is now also happy to be at home.

Over the past 3 months, I would pack up the kids and follow Reggie to work or be a single parent while he goes off to work for about 5 days. That has been our lives about 90 percent of the last 3 months. I will say that when we would tag along it was like a little work vacation, but now...aahhh to be home again. The traveling circus has retired to Snowflake once again. We have been to Colorado, New Mexico, and we were able to stay at my parents house in Pima a few different times.

After being gone for 3 months and home one week this is what I realized...

1. I am very tired

2. um, where is the maid? "towels in room 311 please" :)

3. my kids were only sick once in the past 3 months

4. we have been home a week and every body has either allergies or colds

5. our house is HOT(good ol' swamp coolers when it's humid-they do NOTHING)

6. I LOVE and appreciate my home way more than ever before

7. I enjoy cooking-however dislike cleaning up

8. I am glad to be home and buy healthy food-and EAT it.

9. I love my ward

10. We live in a great community

11. We are very blessed

12. I REALLY need to appreciate Reggie and his job more

13. my kids have been playing none stop with each other since we've been back

-HAPPILY playing! :)

Well I hope to be posting a little more frequently now...many stories of the last few months to come soon...

Kirana Manea!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY KIRA!!!

Kira turned 3 yrs old last Sunday. I can't believe my little B is already 3!

Kira is

sweet

loaded with personality

RED HEADED(with the red headed attitude and all)

strong minded

smart

dancer

singer

princess

wild

loud

quiet

funny

big tease

fun

beautiful

green eyes

sensitive

tough

actress

stinker

attitudicidal(did ya get that)

tender

rambunctious

active

girly

strong

spunky

My mom always said Kira was like a little pixie and she reminds us all that she is just a little Tinkerbell *sweet with attitude.

Kira's name is Kirana(Hello) Manea(Beautiful). Reggie served a mission in the Cook Islands and spoke Mauri there and so she is Hello Beautiful!

Ok so Kira was potty trained almost completely-she finally went like a week with out having an accident. One hour before her birthday party-she pees. So there went her cute little Birthday outfit and bows. Right at 6:30 when Reg's family was going to be there - she pees again. There went another outfit. Oh my goodness I was running out of clothes for her. I guess it was too much excitement. We went to see my parents because of work Reggie had in Safford and the entire weekend I was cleaning up pee! Oh my gosh am I exhausted from that. We will be going again and I really hope I can remember to remind her so she doesn't have an accident on my parent new carpet again!

So my parents have recently acquired some really nice statues and their living room is filled with them-in the last year the room has been painted, re-carpeted, re-furnished and then some. Well leave it to B to now have all the grandkids banned from that room. She doesn't mean to do harm, she is just always going never stopping. She can't even sit still to eat. But I love her for it. I love my little energizer bunny! Without her energy it just wouldn't be B!

Just so everyone knows(she got the nickname B when she was born. Cooper couldn't say Kira or Baby-but B is short for baby. Well B just stuck and we call her that all the time even still)

More Tea please!-oh I mean Hot cocoa!

Kira loved her Tea set and the little table and chairs!
Wade is Reggie's brother and the kids' favorite person ever!

Kira was so sweet to let Cooper help her open all her presents!

She really is a sweetheart!

Lately she says "my name princess"

Kira's birthday party was the night before her birthday, but on her birthday we went to Pima so my parents got to see her on her birthday.

Kira-blowing out the candles on her Tinkerbell cake!

I love you Kira-every moment I think of you! You add so much sweetness to our family and just enough spunk! Life would be very dull without you! Happy Birthday my little princess!

Our Happy little trip! (long post)

Reggie works as a plumber for his Dads company. They got some work for a bunch of McDonald's. All the McDonald's restaurants are adding smoothie/coffee machines.

They got a job in Durango, CO at McDonald's. We tagged along and it was a blast. I think my favorite part of the trip was that we just hung out with each other. It was just our little family.

On these jobs-they begin at 8pm, so Reggie has to work nights, so trying to keep quiet the next morning in a hotel room with 3 kids was very interesting.

When we got to our hotel we asked how much it would be to upgrade from a one bed to two beds. It was a corporate rate so it stayed the same. Boy am I glad we got the bigger room, I saw the other room and it was tiny-we would have gone crazy in there. After being there a few days and Reggie didn't get something he needed delivered to the McDonald's. So we needed to extend our stay a couple more days. Then we found out that Reggie got another job in Cortez which is only 45 min away from Durango so in the long run our trip ended up being almost 2 weeks instead of 5 days. We could stay in our room into the weekend because they were booked but they bumped us to a family suite where the kids had their own room and we had two beds in ours!

Cooper is my little frisbee man!

Reggie is just another kid!


The kids loved to play especially with Reggie.

After a couple days we decided on a trip to Silverton. One of the most beautiful drives in my life. It took about an hour to get there and Reggie and I just loved the drive. It snowed the night before and we didn't get much in Durango, but our drive was packed with snow all around. It was Amazing! This picture doesn't give an ounce of justice.

This is a very cloudy/foggy picture of Silverton. Absolutely gorgeous and surrounded by mountains. There is a little town way down in there.

We drove past Silverton to Urray.

Why is there a door in the wall of a mountain?

I want to live THERE!?!

Silvertons very old jailhouse! I wonder why Reggie brought me there?;)

Oh wait it's not a loony bin-just jail :)

Another trip to the park.

So Funny! Reggie actually got stuck in the slide. I guess it turns tighter than it looks like it would. It really was funny-at least to me.

How Sweet!

My fishermen! One of Reggie's highlights of the trip besides working of course :)

It's a good thing we didn't put a hook on hers, instead it just has a little rubber crown. She kept fishing with it though-very cute!

Poor Kyler is stuck in the play pen while everybody is fishing.

Reggie and Cooper just wanted to fish, Kyler fell asleep, and Kira was freezing. I was just busy being a Mommy, trying to steal a few casts-only to get nothing, but we still had fun.

Our hotel in Durango(The Palmer Hotel) was right next to the train depot. The train leaves for Silverton twice a day. The kids loved to see and hear the train while we enjoyed our delicious breakfast.

This is a picture taken at our hotel. It seemed more like a bed & breakfast. It was awesome and beautiful. They had an old fashioned elevator which was both cool and tiny. I had to hold the gate open with one hand and fit the kids and stroller inside-whoa! That was quite the adventure-it's too bad I didn't get a picture. The elevator was barely(and I mean barely) big enough for the stroller with me and the kids on the side-no room for Reggie. It was super cool and the kids enjoyed taking the elevator!

Cooper and Kira just started to dance! Too Cute!

Cooper kept getting upset because Kira just wanted to dance and twirl around the room be herself.

Definitely a high point. The swimming pool! I love love love to swim and our pool was heated thank goodness. We didn't get the pool until our second hotel when Reggie was working in Cortez.

Adorable!

Poor Kyler was stuck in his stroller!

While we were swimming the hotel got loaded with like 100 kids about 5th or 6th grade-and they were headed...to the pool, We didn't swim long before the entire swimming pool area was filled with kids. The next morning at breakfast some ladies who worked there mentioned that MOST of the kids had coffee that morning. I could not believe it. COFFEE?! Almost all of them?!

Well that was our trip. The highlight being Kira getting a high fever and Reggie going to get some Tylenol. A few days later Cooper threw up IN our hotel room right when Reggie was off to work(Bye Hun:) Cooper threw up 3 times each being every other day-in the hotel room every time(I finally lined the floor with towels but by then Cooper mastered making it to the toilet). Poor kid. And having to do laundry twice was exciting too. All in all the drive wasn't long, and the kids were sweethearts.

It was SO nice to come home!

7 of the BEST years!

25 things I love about Reggie:

1. He loves me

2. He loves to play with his kids

3. He is a VERY hard worker

4. He CLAIMS he hunts to provide food for his family :)

5. He loves animals especially horses and loves the outdoors

6. He is always singing something

7. He is just as stubborn as I am

8. He is the best Dad

9. Cooper wants to be just like him

10. Kira brings out his softer side

11. Kyler pulls on Reggie's heartstrings because Kyler is so tender

12. He has an amazing Testimony

13. He is so cute

14. He is such a smart man

15. He does the right things even when it's hard

16. He can make me laugh when I'm feeling blue

17. Reggie would live off a generator in the middle of nowhere if it weren't for his wife

18. He has a very quick temper

19. Reggie flirts with me all the time-even if in my old mommy age I don't take it quite as well as I use to-I still love to flirt with him, and he makes me smile and laugh.

20. He just another kid in our house

21. He is funny

22. He loves me for me

23. He is becoming a better person as the years go on

24. He has to ask me how to check the email every time he gets on-and he isn't aloud to turn the computer off although he is getting the hang of it.

25. I love to watch him work-he makes me feel safe

Reggie-you are the best especially for putting up with me. I mean we have had 3 kids in 4 years and a person can only imagine what that can do to the emotional state of a woman.

Happy 7th year Anniversary Love.

I love you Babe!

Things have been a little crazy so I hope to post again soon about all the things we have been up to lately. We have been in Colorado for 2 weeks and Reggie has been gone a lot with work-but the work came at the best time-and we are very greatful for the work-it has been a great blessing.