Christmas 2009

For Christmas this year, we traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to be with Tamara's family. We were there for a little over a week, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon, and began our week of relaxation. It was so nice to be able to go to church with family, and have a little help with Kylie during Sacrament Meeting. She is so active these days, she keeps us busy.




On Wednesday, December 23rd, we took Kylie to the Charlotte Nature Museum. This museum focuses on nature-based learning, in a fun atmosphere.

Kylie got to see a snake up close

and an owl

There is also a butterfly exhibit at the Nature Mesuem. To our delight, as soon as we entered the exhibit, a butterfly landed on Kylie. We coached her to hold still, and just watch the butterfly. She did such a good job.

It landed on her shoulder

And then came in for a closer look

We also got to see a turle eat his lunch

The museum put on a puppet show that was about 15 minutes long (which is perfect) on bears hibernating during the winter. It incorporated Christmas and Santa into the show, which was pretty creative if you ask me.

The bear decided to wake up during the winter so he wouldn't miss Christmas (this was upon the advice of his friend Beaver).

Later on that afternoon, Steve and I snuck away for an overnight trip to celebrate our four year wedding anniversary. Dad and Mom watched Kylie for us, which we greatly appreciated. We stayed at the Westin Hotel, in downtown Charlotte (which locals refer to as Uptown). Upon checking in, we were informed that we had been upgraded to the Presidential Suite. As we went to our room, we had to take pictures, since we figured we would never stay in such a nice suite again.

To explain, when you walked in the marble foyer upon entering our rooms, there was a room to the left, which was the bedroom. It had views of downtown Charlotte, which was beautiful if you opened all of the curtains.

To the right of the entry was an entertaining room, with sofas and a big screen. This made Steve very happy. Which made me happy.

The bathroom attached to the bedroom had a wonderful jacuzzi tub, which was like heaven.

The bedroom



The bathroom

Entertaining Room

We walked to dinner that night, our restaurant (Ruth's Chris Steakhouse) was only about 10 minutes away from our hotel. We went by an outdoor ice skating rink, and got to watch people skating for a few minutes, that was so fun. We had a momentous anniversary, and I can't believe four years has went by so fast.

This Christmas, Kylie really got into opening gifts. She opened her own gifts and everyone else's too. Here are a few pictures:

Enjoying the fire with Aunt Julie Anna

On Saturday we went to Ray's Splash Planet, which is a kid-geared water park. Kylie wasn't really into going down the slides, but she enjoyed playing around as long as someone was holding her.

Having fun with Dad

and Mom

and Grandma Rosie

Saturday night Ben and Susannah came up from Columbia to hang out. We went on a double date, to a restaurant called Firebirds. Delicious! Before we left, Kylie enjoyed playing around with Uncle Ben a lot.

We truly had a Merry Christmas

Snow Adventures

This past week we had a snow storm, and got about 10" of snow. On Saturday Steve took Kylie out to play in it. This is the first time that Kylie has really been able to experience a lot of snow, since last year she was only about six months old or so when it was winter. She enjoyed exploring the snow on the back deck while I blew up the sledding tube (I guess that's what you call it) inside.

The snow can be hard to walk in.

At the top of the hill in our back yard, ready to go.
She insisted on going by herself, such a brave little gal.

Whee!!



At the bottom of the hill, waiting for Daddy to come pull her back up again.

That $20 tube was money well spent!

Snow Bunny

Last night we got our first snow (or dusting rather) of the 2009/2010 Winter season. When Kylie got up this morning she was ready first thing to head outside. We got her suited up to go out, and I couldn't help myself, the camera had to come out too.

All geared up and ready to go.

Seriously Mom, why all the photos??

Okay, okay, one more...

Isn't snow fun?

And interesting...

Our slide has snow on it

Happy Winter!!

Halloween 2009

This Halloween was extra special, because we now have a real neighborhood for Kylie to go Trick-or-Treating in. The Trick-or-Treat time also provided us an opportunity to meet more of our neighbors. Everyone seems really friendly. Kylie was a butterfly this year.

Here she is, getting ready to go. She was pretty excited.




Steve took her Trick-or-Treating, so that I could stay back and answer the door.

She definitely liked all of her candy. She kept saying "candy, candy" after she got home. We gave her a few Smarties and she was in heaven.

Happy Halloween!

Apple Picking

Today Steve and I decided to take a break from packing and go pick some apples. Barthel's Fruit Farm, which is located about 20 minutes away, has u-pick Honey Crisps, which are a favorite variety of ours. So after Kylie woke up from her morning nap, we loaded up the car to head to the apple farm. As you can see, Kylie was really excited for the experience... (see below)

Once we got out of the car and she woke up, she kept saying "apples, apples!" She really loves apples. We let her have one that Dad picked for her. She really liked it.

It was only after we got home that we realized she had eaten three apples, two at Barthel's, and one on the way home. Apples are good for brain development, right?

We plan on making picking apples a family tradition.

Love the Socks

Last week when Kylie and I were packing for the move, I opened a box I had saved that had shipping peanuts in it. Kylie was sifting through the peanuts, and found an unopened gift. I looked at the shipping label on the box, and it was a gift to me from my parents, in April 2006. How I overlooked the little gift, I have no idea. I let Kylie unwrap it, and among some other items, were these socks. I guess she thought they were hers, and almost every day since she has worn them. With everything. Apparently she's a bigger Hello Kitty fan than I realized....

Our First Home

After a lot of hunting and praying, our offer was accepted on the little house in Jackson that we had our eye on. We close on October 15th. I am feeling excited, a little aprehensive since we're never spent this much money before. Mostly, I feel like we are starting a new chapter in our lives, which I have looked forward to for a long time. Steve and I have been in apartments since the day we were married. It was time! Here are a few pictures.

Kitchen

Dining Room

Living Room



Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Basement Back Deck and Yard