Introducing Baby #3

Guess what?! We just found out last week we are expecting baby #3 to join our family next year. Here is its debut picture to the world. I also got to hear its cute little heart beat (also pictured here). Since we didn't know how far along I was I went to the doctor today to get baby's first picture. Anyone want to guess how far along I am? (Correct answer will be posted in 1 week.)

How far along is Debbie?
	4 weeks
	5 weeks
	6 weeks
	7 weeks
	8 weeks
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Christmas

Grandma got the kids all matching pajamas. Makayla and Kalyana with cousin Austin.


This is Tarl showing how easy it is to fold up the scooter.


Kaly & Tarl Scootin'

The biggest so far

We woke up Sunday morning to the biggest snow fall we've seen yet this year. It was Super cold, icy and wet and Kalyana couldn't be happier.

Disneyland

Disneyland was awesome! It was our first 'family roadtrip/vacation' all by our little lonesomes. (Usually when we go places it's with our extended family.) We had a great time (thank you everyone who donated to our causes via early Christmas presents!)! We took two days to drive to California and then spent three days in the parks and drove home in one day. The first day we spent in Disneyland and rode autopia (Kalyana REALLY wanted to drive a car all by herself...she even got her own drivers license), buzz lightyear, the storybook ride, casey jr, teacups, dumbo, carasel, pinochio, snow white, haunted mansion, pirates of the caribean, tarzans treehouse, whinnie the pooh, we saw santa and his reindeer, Pluto, Cruella Devile, Tigger, Whinnie the Pooh, Jessie (Toy Story 2) and the Scourcerer (Sword and the Stone). The second day we spent in California Adventure. We went and played in the animation building for an hour or so (who could blame us?!) and got to talk to Crush the turtle --Kalyana even got to ask him a question! Then we learned how to draw Goofy and the animator was pretty impressed with Tarls! ;-), we rode on the Monsters Inc new ride, saw the Muppet 3d movie, played on all the Bugs Life rides and watched the bug movie. We saw lots of characters like, Sully, Hercules, Mickey (the sourcerer), Cinderella, and Flick. We called it an early day so we could rest up for our last day in Disneyland. Wednesday we went back to the park and rode on the train, Rodger Rabbit, Small World, Alice in Wonderland, Carsel again, Jungle Cruise, and the Tikki Room. We also saw lots of characters. Since my dad used to work at Disneyland he still had some leftover tickets but since the good folks over at disneyland were so nice they let us have parkhopper tickets instead! We were able to get a reservation for a "princess lunch" over at California Adventure so we left Disneyland and went to have lunch with the princesses. It was a bit more pricey than we had planned but for a one time great memory Kalyana loved it! We got to see ariel, mulan, bell, cinderella and snow white. Not only see them but they came over to our table individually and talked with us for a few minutes. Kalyana was in awe each time they stopped by and as soon as one left she'd get giggly and clap her hands and jump in her chair. Besides all the princesses we also got to see Alice and the Madhatter, Santa Goofy, Pluto, Lightning McQueen, Mater, Christmas Mickey and Minnie, and Jasmine. We had a super time but we're very happy to be home and back with Makayla (Grandpa and Grandma D took great care of her while we were gone!).

Dear Santa

Being sick is NO fun!

We haven't had much activity since our last post. We came home from our Thanksgiving trip with little Makayla sick and the rest of us caught it a few days later. This is the first time all four of us have been sick at the same time and it's quite the challange (speaking from the motherly point of view)!! It seems we have a glimmer of hope of feeling better and we use up our energy to only realize we still feel like poop :) It's been hard trying to keep the kids entertained while forcing them to rest (since little kids just want to bounce off the walls) and while trying to rest myself. Kalyana and Makayla thought it'd be fun to try out each other's carseats. It actually kept them entertained for a good 10 minutes.

Where are the angels?

The first real snow of the year and it's November 28th! I can't believe it took this long to get here but Kalyana sure is glad. This morning after looking out the window and seeing all the snow all she could think about was getting out there as fast as she could to play. After she got out of the bath she went in her room to get dressed and apparently just couldn't stand her excitement because a few minutes later I saw her running down the hall wearing nothing but her purple snow hat. It was too funny! After I coaxed her into getting dressed warm enough to go play we went outside and enjoyed nature. After several attempts at her snow angels she told me, "I thought when it snowed there were angels. They were supposed to be snow angels not grass angels." Apparently she would still like it snow more.

Clever

Last night I was reading Kalyana a bedtime story about Christmas. Kaly asked me what a "clever little elf" was so I told her elfs were santa's helpers. She said, "No mom, what does clever mean?" Kinda stumped I said, "Uhm clever means smart and tricky" And she said, "Like I was clever when I asked you if you could read me a story after my kid show was over?" --Earlier that day I was trying to finish up my finances on the computer and Kalyana asked me to read to her so I said I'd love to but she needed to wait for 5 minutes. Then she said asked if I could read to her after her kid show was over so I said sure that was a great idea. Then about 20 seconds later her kid show ended and she came over and got on my lap and said, "Mom my kid show is over, lets read!" This little girl is too smart for her own britches.

Thanksgiving

We had a super time for Thanksgiving up in Idaho. There was quite a crowd (around 20 something people)for the whole week and it was great to get to visit and play with everyone! My cute sister-in-law did my hair and I happened to put the girls in their matching shirts so I couldn't resist a picture. It was SO super cold though and really windy so we couldn't spend alot of time outside. The girls were good sports though. The older grandkids are making candy turkeys for the centerpeices and apparently Kalyana can be camera shy (that doesnt happen often with my kids!).

Toilet Paper

Man I can't even blink around this girl. I guess this is what I get when I have a second kid. I dont remember Kalyana ever getting in to so much trouble in such a short amount of time.

Play nice

Makayla is taking after her dad and is already wanting to draw. Kalyana is sneaking in some jumping on the couch (off limits!. The girls are playing nice and Kalyana is really loving that Makayla is growing up so she can play more with her.

My little booger

Here is my little booger doing what she does best. I stood up to help Kalyana (2 feet away) for about 1 minute and turned back around to find Makayla having a great time "learning" all about cause and effect. I guess it was a good thing I needed to refill the wipes in the diaper bag and I plenty to put in there :)

Twiners and turkey

I finally got a good picture of my kids in their white dresses. I guess after church while Tarl was waiting for me to grab all the Relief Society folders (did I tell you I got a new calling?! Relief Society secretary! It's way fun and I'm totally loving it!) he was standing in the hall with the girls and everyone kept telling him how adorable they looked in their white dresses. Funny enough, Kalyana's 'potatoe chips' and 'computer chips' kids that she carries around are the Mickey/Minnie Groom/Bride that Tarl and I got on our honeymoon from Disneyland. So when we got in the car to go to church on Sunday she found her Minnie and I guess carried it with her into church (I didnt notice until we sat down) but she was in her white dress too! We've had these dresses for about 6 months now and frankly I'm surprised they've stayed white this long with Kalyana being in nursury (and getting snacks like chocolate chip cookies or oranges!) and Makayla crawling on the floor during church.
Kalyana is showing off her turkey that we made in our preschool class today. I found this cute little idea online. Obviously it's her hands but the body of the turkey are her feet. The kids did such a great job, I was really impressed!

She knows her stuff!

I just wanted to share a story that happened today in church. Tarl went to pick Kaly up from nursery and her teacher told him this cute little thing. Her sweet teacher tells us every week that she is just so 'intelligent' which as a mother just makes me so happy but I today was just so super cute. I guess when Tarl went in to pick her up the teacher asked him if we teach her a lot about the gospel and Tarl told her that we do and we have daily family scripture study and prayers and stuff. She said she just couldn't believe how sharp this little 3 year old was with her answers. The teachers were holding up pictures for the lesson. They held up the first one and the kids all shouted, "Jesus!" (it was the picture of Jesus in the red robe) then they talked about Jesus for a few minutes and then the held up a picture of John the baptist baptizing Jesus and all the kids were quite except Kalyana who shouted, "That's Jesus' cousin!" I am actually surprised myself because I knew she would remember his name, but I'm impressed that she remembered the relationship and all. I swear, I'll tell her something once and then a few days later connect something else to that and she'll remember it forever. That little girl is sharp as a whip and I'm pretty humbled that I get to be her mom.

Sharing Sisters

It's good to have a sister! Without even being asked Kalyana has been doing so good at sharing with her sister this week. I caught her sharing her sucker and today (for the 2nd time) she got her little sister a juice box when she went to get her own. What a sweetheart!

Video: SistersSharing

Mom & Kaly's Special Date

Kalyana and I got to go on a special date. A few months ago Tarl and I told her that we'd take her to Disneyland but after some setbacks at work we weren't going to be able to so when Disney on Ice came to town I thought it'd be a perfect way to still let her see the characters we'd been promising her for a much less expensive price (I got 2 tickets for $7 a piece!). (Note: We are now able to continue on with our Disneyland plans! We'll be leaving Makayla with Grandpa & Granma and driving to California in early December.) We went Sandy and rode Trax to the Delta Center. She was pretty excited about her first train ride. Then we watched the show. We saw Peter Pan, 101 Dalmations, Little Mermaid and Lilo & Stich (plus Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy). In the second group of pictures if you look closely you can see Kaly's little pointer fingers up. She was standing up the whole time dancing and shaking. We had a GREAT time! I think her favorite part to tell about is Peter Pan chasing his shadow.

Enjoying the leaves

The neighborhood kids had a good time earlier tonight playing in the leaves. We have several huge trees in our culdesac that lost more than 1/2 their leaves in the last 3 days so we had lots of leaves to make a great big pile. We could hardly rake them into a pile before the kids started jumping in and kicking them all over the front yard.


Kalyana has been waiting for the leaves to fall off because earlier in the summer she was asking us when it would be Halloween and Tarl told her not until the leaves fall off the trees. Well all this week she's been looking out the window and saying, "Yup, it's Halloween! All the leaves changed colors and they're all falling off the trees Mom!" It was such a beautiful day and I couldn't think of a better way to enjoy than jumping in the leaves! (Tarl touched up my pictures to make them 'crisp'. I'm sure impressed with his mad mad skillz. What a good husband I have.)

Kids are Funny (& introducing the Chips Family)

Kalyana found a neighbors scooter outside and has been enjoying that it's not too big for her to ride around on while the bigger kids are at school. This week Makayla watched her first every Baby Einstein but really didnt stay in the chair for long (she lasted about 1 1/2 minutes). And Tarl is enjoying time with his baby before it's time for her to go to bed.

Side Story: It started back on Conference Sunday when Kalyana was trying to stay entertained. She told us she had a husband and that his name was Chocolate Chips. So as part of the fun Tarl and I added a few names to her family. Now whenever she meets new people she has to tell them about her new family. She has a Mickey Groom & Minnie Bride that Tarl and I brought home from our Disneyland honeymoon that are her kids. Here is the breakdown of her family. Although it's a million times cuter when she tells you about it.
Chocolate and Kalyana Chips
Kids: Potato Chips & Computer Chips
Dog: Buffalo Chips
Fish: Fish'n Chips

Halloween Recap

Kaly is showing off her costume and part of her moms costume. And the picture isn't bad, it just that we took it when we get home from trick or treating and Tarl and the whole house fogged up with his fog machine. As you can see Tarl is spraying our house down with spider webs. We also had a few decorations out front plus a skeleton, and we added skulls and bones on the door (not shown) that whenever any one would walk by it would raise the string of bones.
Inside the house we had a fogmaching and strobe light that added to the spooky night. Tarl got to stay home and pass out candy to the trick or treaters and Kalyana and I went out on the town. I think it really paid off to for us to go alone because at every door they'd drop candy into her bag and then tell Kaly how cute she was and then offer her more pieces or drop in more candy. All candy combined (she went trick or treating with her Aunt Heidi at work, and then with me around the neighborhood) with over 4lbs of candy--which is pretty good considering we only went on 2 1/2 streets!

Service Makes us Smile

At preschool this week the girls are learning about service. I think part of their lesson was that sometimes it's fun and nice to do service that is a secret. So Kalyana came home and drew us this beautiful picture and walked upstairs and on her way said, "Mom this is a service, but it's a secret so dont tell my dad. And you can't know about it either, ok?" So when we went upstairs last night we found a special note on our bed. She said it's a picture of Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and it says, "Dear mom and dad, you could pick out a paper or you could get a some paper and ask your mom and dad if you can draw on it and send it up to your room, the end."

We love Halloween

Makayla: Witch Kalyana: Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas) Tarl: "I dont know" Debbie: Princess

Our ward had a Halloween party on Friday so our family got all decked out for the costume parade and the trunk or treating. Unofficially I won for the best decorated trunk. We had a few skulls (with glowing red eyes), pumpkins, spider web lace hanging from the top, and a cut off arm. Next year we've got a better plan so we're already pretty excited (it involves strobe light, fog machine, and music).

No more army crawl

Although she's been walking around furniture for over a month now she finally just decided it was about time to stop the 'army crawl' and start crawling like the rest of the babies out there....here's the video to prove it!

Video: MCKnees

Motorcyles & Rapping

We had a great weekend getting to spend time up at Derek and Marshae's cabin. We took the most beautiful drive on the way home along the Wasatch Back. I wish I would have gotten out and gotten pictures to prove it but believe me, it was awesome! Up at the cabin Kalyana's cousins Abani and Aislin let Kaly play with the motorcycles and they all had a great time driving. The girls just couldn't get enough of it! We also spent a day at Grandma and Grandpa D's. I was able to get my mom to cut out Kalyana's Halloween costume (that seems to be the hardest part for me) and then I sewed it up. Stay tuned for pictures of her wearing it later this week. Also I stuck this hat on Makayla and snapped a few photos and didn't realize how funny it was until I uploaded them and realized she was a little rapper baby.

Spidey Man Spidey Can

Tarl did an excellent job decorating the front of our house with halloween decor. (Look closely! The spiderwebs look so real, not like the cotton you pull apart.) He has this nifty little "spiderweb sprayer" that attaches to a drill and spins out spider web fluid (it smells a lot like rubber cement)--think something along the lines of a cotton candy machine (heats up sugar and sprays it out). It's mostly an indoor thing (due to heat and wind acting against it quickly) and really only lasted about 1 day, but it looked so awesome that we even had several neighbors flocking over to ask how he was doing it and to get a demonstration. Luckily I took pictures as he was doing it since by the time we woke up the next morning it was all gone. Pretty realistic looking though huh? We'll have to do it again the day of halloween.

Last Week

This all happened last week but I wasn't able to get the picture file to load up. It was so cute I couldn't stop trying to get it to work so enjoy. Like daddy taught her, Kalyana is trying to teach Makayla to play video games. It's incredible what these little kids are capable of. Kalyana and I had a good time trying to get Makayla to sit in the backpack. She's become quite the wiggle worm and wouldn't stay put but we managed to get a good laugh (and picture). Makayla is showing how she can climb out of (and onto) her walker. Kalyana is eating her yummy halloween cookies she made at preschool. They even got to decorate pumpkins with stickers and jewels.

Good Company, Good Food

We enjoyed spending family night with the D's and J's and even got Cafe Rio for dinner. We also discovered that Austin's (2.5 mo) and Makayla's (9 mo) feet are almost the same size. I took Makayla to the doctor today and found out she's gained 1lb 4 oz in 3 months which gives her a grand total of 14 lbs and 8 oz. She is no longer on her growth curve and is down from 10% down to 4%. That's my little active walker. The doctor was concerned but Kalyana did the same thing and really, we're a short family. Kalyana is showing us her friends (starts with "F"--the letter this week in joyschool) and the number 6 because the girls are learning about friends and feelings.

Sleeping Piano

Makayla was sequestered to her crib for a bit to play while Tarl and I cleaned like crazy this week. We had a cleaning check from our landlords-which despite what initially seems like a bad thing was actually really nice to get us motivated to get the entire house clean at once. As you can see she tuckered herself right out (and it was naptime).

Our own Houdini

Makayla doesn't like to be strapped into anything and if we dare try she'll try to show us who's boss by escaping. Kalyana was the same way and as my mother tells me (and from the home movies I've seen) I was too. Makayla's pretty funny about the whole thing too because she'll keep turning around and looking at us. I can't tell if she's doing it to get a laugh or reaction from us, or if she's trying to be sneaky (pretty tricky for a 9mo old).

Apple Stealer

Makayla is a little apple-stealing turkey. Her sister put it down for a minute but now that Makayla can walk around furniture nothing on the coffee table is safe. She knew she had to be sneaky too because she grabbed it and crawled away to eat it.
Today we got to babysit the girls' cousin Austin while his mom and dad went golfing for their anniversary. We got this fun 'grandkids' photo for grandma.

Family Tea Party

This afternoon we decided to have our first family tea party. Tarl and I made a yummy lunch of ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and corn and Kalyana set the table. It was really fun and Kalyana loved getting to pour us all "hot chocolate" (apple juice). (I think Aunt Heather taught her that her tea parties were really hot chocolate parties.)

Girls Night Out

Makayla and Debbie celebrated with Kalyana that she kept her panties dry all day. (This is one of the variety of rewards we've tried.) Kalyana invited us girls to a Princess teaparty Tuesday night and we all shared "hot chocolate" & "crumpets" (or really water and fish crackers).

Family, isn't it about time

A day in the home of the us. Makayla climbing into and onto everything, Kalyana doing crafts and going to preschool, Tarl playing with the girls and Debbie reading. Alot. In the past 3 weeks I've read 5 books, although it's a bit trickier to do with 2 kids in tow.

Sneaky Sleeping Beauty

Kalyana doesn’t like to miss the ‘fun’ when she has to go to bed and sometimes she’ll sneak downstairs and sit on the step and listen to Tarl and I after her bedtime. Last night I went running upstairs to check on her and I almost stood right on her, not expecting her to be sleeping on the step.

"smilecheese"

Kalyana actually IS good with a camera. We’ve let her take quite a few pictures and she’s honed her skills surprisingly well! However after she takes pictures she always wants to snap pictures of herself so we end up with a lot of close ups on our digital camera. These are all pictures she’s taken herself. And just to explain the title, since Kalyana was a little tike (I'd guess 1 1/2) whenever she'd hold a camera she'd say "smilecheese" as if it were one word.

Pulling up

For the last two weeks Makayla has been standing up on every piece of furniture we own. The only time she crawls now is to move from one piece to a further, non-connected piece. She loves to be up where the rests of us are and is loving her new found freedom. Needless to say there has been a lot of crying as she’s learned to hone in her balancing and instead of falling.

J-e-l-l-O

Aunt Heather gave us some fun crafts to do. Today we made Jell-O aquariums complete with fish inside!

Xbox Baby

Kaly is getting the hang of this “hand-eye coordination” her dad has been teaching her or what it’s otherwise known as: the Xbox. Her favorite games are “the funny Homer Simpson game”(Simpson hit and run), the ice game (fusion frenzy), the marble game (Ultra blast), and “the roller ball game” (Totem ball). Totem ball is a new game you can play with no controler but instead you use a camera and your hands and you move by going up or down with your hands. Tarl is teaching her how to play and Makayla is joining in mostly because she found another place to stand.

We have a writer in the family

Kalyana is getting pretty good at learning to write her letters. She get's pretty excited and asks me everyday to help her spell different people's names. I draw little hash marks and spell her name out so she can get used to writing those letters. A few days ago though, she wanted to write a name and have me trace it. Here's what she wrote...(pretty exciting huh!?!) In my name, she did the hash marks on the first letter and I think after that it took too much to remember to do it to each letter. She really did it all this by herself!!

Who'd a thunk it?

I dont know about you, but I look at this picture of Kalyana (eating some of our early Halloween candy) and I can't help but think she looks tall. Well enjoy cause I bet that won't happen often huh? As for this picture of Makayla I can't help but subject my children to the same things I was put through as a child by either my older sisters or more probable my cute mother.

To The Top

We have one large step right when you walk in the front door which is just the right size for Makayla's climbing adventures, but just last week she actually attempted to climb up the stairs, but was only able to put her hands on the first step. Well tonight, she climbed up and managed to stay on them. I guess we really will have to invest in a gate.

School Clothes

This is Kalyana's first official 'new school clothes' year. She put on some of her 2T pants with tennis shoes (instead of sandles) and was already to go to preschool when I realized just how short her pants had gotten over the summer. We took a trip to the store and got her a few staples (a coat, 3 pairs of pants and a few shirts). I'll have to get pictures of the others and post those too!