Circus

Jordan World Circus came to town... We decided to take the little ones, and boy did they love it. Well the first half at least. It was pretty ghetto fab, but Gus enjoyed the tigers, elephants, bear, and ponies. I have always wanted to go to the circus, when I was little my best friend Jenny Snodgress got to go to the Barnum and Bailey circus. I was really jealous and sad I didn't get to go. So I finally got the opportunity to go after twenty years or so. That makes me feel old saying twenty years ago, but alas I am getting "bigger" literally and older. There were a couple of tight rope walkers named Carlos and Ulysses I will let you decide if they lived up to their names or not... I couldn't stop laughing at them:) Makes me smile thinking about them right now. The entire time we were there I thought about how they must treat the circus animals poor unfortunate souls. 

Gus

It finally rained in our part of the country which I was very excited about. I told Kyle the other day that I was sick of all of this good weather we were having! Friday night I pulled the extra mattress we have into the front room for Gus to play on. We also turned on the fire place, it was so cozy and Gus loved jumping onto the bed. We have this bed in our sewing/fly tying room and Gus loves to play on it he will fling himself all over it. Actually, he loves playing on any bed even his crib he just plops himself all around it. 

Snow Canyon State Park

 Ali and Rachelle took the jumping picture serious. Someone may or may not have been injured in the taking of this photo. lol

 We were trying to recreate the family matters pose! Awesome

I haven't been to Snow Canyon State Park since Geography in college. It was so beautiful when we went.  Kip, Ali, Rachelle, Kyle, Gus and I did a short hike and I don't even remember the name of it. The contrast of colors is amazing. Gus loved the hike we need to invest in one of these sweet hiking back packs. Afterwards we introduced Ali to the yummy Cafe Rio and then we went to Urban Renewal to find her a pair of boots to rock. She didn't find any but Kip did!

14 Months

Gus Monster at 14 months

Goes to bed at 8:30 or 9:00 wakes up eleven hours later

Takes one nap a day usually at 1 or 2 and it will last 2-4 hours

Favorite foods at the moment: tilapia, raspberries, cereal, pumpkin pancakes

Likes to pound knuckles

Has found his belly button

New words: Kiny (one of his favorite cousins), Stewy (the cat next door), Mama (grandma), shoes, toes

Signs: eat, more, bye, milk...

Infatuated with balls, cats, and dogs. he literally says ball 1,000 times a day

Nightime ritual: bath at 7 play until 8 or 8:30 he will grab the scriptures and fold his arms when he is ready to read and say prayers. Then kisses to daddy we call teddy's name turn on his fan and white noise feed him then lay him in his bed. 

Harvesting time once again

Saturday before Grandma Scholzen's funeral we "got" to help harvest my moms pecans. Kyle informed us that his great great great Grandpa (I don't know how many greats) brought the first pecan trees to the Hurricane area. We curse him under our breath! My mom has 5 pecan trees that get shook every year. I have so many memories of picking up pecans. A few years we sold them which made me and Dusty rich off of our hard work. We only shake the front tree and the back tree so the middle three trees the men try to figure out a way to get them down. Luckily we are all done for another 365 days or so!

Off to Rockville

We went with the Wilson's to visit Grandpa and Grandma Ballard in Rockville. Their neighbor Leon Lewis saw us outside and kindly let us play with his shetland ponies. It is always fun visiting with Grandpa and Grandma they always have stories to tell. Grandpa told Kyle he saw a coyote in the filed across the street the other day, then he proceeded to tell him a story from a few years back. He saw a coyote that came up from the river behind their house and had gotten one of Leon's chickens. He got his gun out and shot it and after he shot it, the chicken came out of the coyotes mouth and ran back home. Kyle has been coyote hunting the past few months so he was enthralled with the stories. I love this last picture of Grant and Grandpa and Grandma. I noticed throughout our visit that he loved talking to Grandpa and always went over to him to tell him about his tractor ride. It was intriguing to me because none of the other kids stopped long enough to talk to them. 

After our visit with them Adam treated us to lunch at Blondies in Springdale. I got the BLT which was delicious and Kyle got a navajo taco which he thought was almost as good as my moms. It has been a lot of fun having family we never see in town!

Grandma Scholzen

{this was our view on the way home from visiting Gma}

We drove to the Beehive home in Coral Canyon on Sunday to say one last goodbye to Grandma Scholzen. She looked comfortable and peaceful. We got the word last night that she passed away. The rest of the evening we spent reminiscing on all of the fun memories we had of her. We stayed up until 12:30 talking about her. When we finally got serious about going to bed I was overcome with sadness purely for selfish reasons.  I know she is in a better place and better yet she is reunited with Grandpa Jack and all of her friends and family.  I can't imagine living without Kyle for as long as she lived without Grandpa Jack. It is hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful woman, and it is even harder knowing Gus will grow up with out her in his life. 

Some of our favorite memories, some need explanations.....

Kyle running away to her house

Coffee and squirrel tea cup  and drinking hot chocolate

Bras and arrowheads
Jazz Games

Pepsi and chocolate
Going to the cabin
Foot Rubs

October 2011

May 2010

November 2010

November 2009

December 2010

December 2010

April 2010

This was taken just 2 weeks ago at Christmas. She was trying to play catch with Gus. She had such a fun spirit that I often see in all of Kyle's family!

2008

Sunday Sunday

I made a few bath bombs for the girls I work with. I made lavender and peppermint, the peppermint turned out better because I used less water so they held their ball shape better. They were quite fun to make and are very aromatic in the bath. I got the jar from family dollar so it was a very inexpensive gift. The recipe is courtesy martha and it is floating around in Pinterest!

My brother Dusty FINALLY found his future Mrs. Wright. She is very sweet and I can't wait for the big day. The world must be coming to an end because none of us EVER thought this day would come;)

The ring

We had Sunday dinner at my mom's and Gus loves to wear her glasses. I thought this picture was pretty epic.

My mom holding kk like she used to when she was little. It is crazy to me to think I have nieces that are turning 16. KK as we refer to her as around Gus and KinBin are so good with Gus. They are his favorite people and help me out so much with him!

Welcome 2012

We celebrated the New Year at my sis' house. I made white chicken chili, monkey bread, and bacon wrapped little smokies. Nothing says Happy New Year like yummy food!

I made this mock photo booth out of nickels and an old sheet. We had fun taking pictures with the mustaches. Gus lasted until around 10:45 then we set up the pack and play in the craft room and he went to bed! The grown ups played a good round of phase ten and the kids were glued to the x box. 

Kyle's Resolutions

Continue being awesome

Do a sprint triathlon and a century

Clean up the language a tad

Learn to play the harmonica

Emily's Resolutions

Learn to play the piano (again)

Get more organized

Drink more water daily

Gus' Resolutions

Sleep through the night (again)

Stop BF

Continue packing on the pounds