The best of 2007!!
We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that this year will bring even more joy and happiness than the last. We had such a great time getting to visit with family and friends. This past year has been so much fun for our family. My sister Jennifer once told me to really enjoy having the girls not in school because once they are in there is less flexibility in the family schedule to travel and have fun. So, needless to say, we took the advice and kept ourselves very busy this past year and had a blast doing it.
We took a trip to Utah in January because my grandfather passed away. We enjoyed seeing extended family that we had not seen in some time. My grandmother had passed away the previous year and we were sad we were unable to go. So we jumped on the opportunity to see family from both sides of my parents. We spent Easter with good friends we have made here in LA and Tye's little sister Lacey came. We were so happy she came to spend time with us. Tye and Khalei participated in their first March of Dimes walk-a-thon in April and we were able to raise money with the help of family and friends for this wonderful cause. It was really special to us to support this casue since Khalei was a preemie. I wasn't able to walk with Tye and Khalei because I was at a rehearsal for a Temple program and Kendyl was needed also in the program. The girls celebrated their birthdays in May. Kendyl turned 1!!! Khalei turned 3!!!. We had a friend party for Khalei and I made her a strawberry shorcake cake at her request, and it was a blast. We had it at the park and I set up a treasure hunt for the kids and they played games and had fun. She talked about it for weeks, oh wait, she still talks about it. We even turned it into a bedtime story. We were very lucky to get to celebrate Kendyl's first birthday in San Diego with all of Tye's side of the family. We watched our awsome little nephew play beach soccer during the day and had a great family party that night.
Well, June was our big vacation month and as I mentioned in a previous blog we spent time in Bishop, Yosemite, visited friends in Salinas, and then spent more time with friends and family in Bakersfield. Tye and I took our first river rafting trip together with our good friends the Walkers and we got to jump off of rocks into the river, awsome!! We are so grateful to them for such a fun time. Wow, we wish we could replay that month over anytime we wanted. Also, during this month of seemingly fantasy Tye and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. We left the kids with Grandma and Aunt Jo Jo for a couple of days. It was our first time leaving them both for two nights. We were a little nervous and talked about them most of the time we were away, but we really enjoyed the time alone. Tye surprised me with a new outfit and a very nice dinner on Hollywood Blvd. and then with tickets to Wicked. I had wanted to go for some time. So when he wipped out the tickets from his back pocket, after tricking me in to believing that he sharted his pants after our nice dinner and dragging me to the car, I was shocked and excited (He always seems to have something up his sleeve). Then, to see the show from the second row, I was so amazed. I love to see the theatre and to see it so close made all of the music and acting even more powerful.
In July my sisters from Texas, Arizona, and Utah went to Bakersfield and so all of my siblings and mother were able to spend time together. It was great to make such good memories and to watch the neices and nephews play together. I am so lucky to have 4 sisters and 1 brother whom I look up to and admire for how amzing they have become.
In August we celebrated my mom's birthday and we were very lucky that she came to visit us. I wanted her to have a fun day so we took her to the Doughboy's Cafe (I saw it on the Foodnetwork as an LA standout cafe) and it was great food. Then we took her to the Skirball Cultural Arts Center and we went to the Noah's Ark Exhibit. It was so interesting to see how inventive they were in creating Noah's Ark and all of the animals. They made them out of everyday objects including different types of metals, ropes, etc. The creators definately had a vision and knew what they were doing.
Throughout the year we enjoyed getting to know new friends, family picnics, beach time, tennis, dinners with friends, visits to the Zoo and our monthly ward play group outings like the Travel Town Train museum. Myself and 4 other church moms organized a one day a week preschool for our little ones. They all did so well and it was so fun to watch them learning together. The girls and I spent alot of time at our local YMCA this past year. I got to take classes in cycling, kickboxing, yoga, and pilates just to name a few. We signed Khalei up for her first ballet dance class at our YMCA and she loved it. Most of her friends that we live close to are boys and they do alot of fun things together but they don't for some reason do ballet. :) Tye and I would often play basketball at the church either late wednesday nights or early saturday mornings. Tye's schedule was often busy so I would pack up the girls and the laptop and head to the church at about 9pm. I would lay Kendyl in a nearby room with lots of blankets (she always went right to sleep and never woke up) and set Khalei up with a movie. It was so fun to be out running the court with the guys. Tye played in a couple of charity golf tourneys and of course he played softball with the office team and did a great job. We took our annual trip to Las Vegas in September and we stayed with Tye's brothers family and had fun spending time with them and Tye's parents. He also had alot of fun hunting with his brother and brother-in-law this past year.
In October, we took our annual trip to Disneyland and met our good friends the Sweeny family and our good friend Alisa and her daughter. I got a great deal on our tickets through Craigslist and so when we got there we uprgraded to season passes and we went again in November when Tye was off work. Also, in October Tye and I ran our first 5k Volkslauf run together with some friends from Bakersfield. The Volkslaug is a military mud run with over 20 different obstacles and more mud than you can imagine to run sometime swim through, and although I am sure Tye wanted to run ahead of me many times he stayed right beside and we crossed the finish line together. There were many high walls and if you can imagine Tye kneeling down on all fours so I could climb on his back and jump over. This was a reoccurring theme and although I was much more excited to run this race than Tye originally was, he is know commited to running it every year. For Halloween Khalei was Cinderella and Kendyl was a Princess Fairy they were so cute to see all dressed up.
We celebrated Thanksgiving a few times with family and friends. Tye typically works on the holiday days so we travel before or after to spend time with family. Then on the day of we have been blessed to spend a little time with our little family and friends.
December was such a busy month full of great experiences. On December 1st I performed in our ward production called "Syncing in the Rain". When I agreed to participate I was a little hesitant, but I thought it would be fun. Come to find out I was one of the only solo acts and instead of a fast upbeat Christmas song like I assumed it would be, it was a serious but beautiful song called "The Best Gift". Believe it or not this experience was a type of dream come true I always wished I could sing and perform in front of others. But lacking the great singing part a lip synching production is the next best thing.:) It was a very memorable experience and it was alot of fun. I wanted to share the words of the song so that you will have idea of how this song effected me emotionally.
"The Best Gift"
The Best Gift
that I ever got
didn't really weight alot
it didn't have a ribbon round
and it sometimes made a terrible sound
The best of all
it seems to me
it wasn't 'neath the Christmas tree
but yet I guess I'd have to say
that it made all the other presents, twice as gay
the best gift that I've ever want
I'd always wanted most to hold
yet in my dreams, of sugar and spice
I never dreamed it could be, so nice
The best gift that I'll ever get
was sometimes dry and sometimes wet
was usually pink, but often times red
as it laid so innocently it it's bed
The best gift of the year to me,
what I hold most dear to me
The gift that simply drove me wild
was a tiny, newborn, child.
Yes, I cried but only at the end. I think these words often explain how I feel about the gift of motherhood. I definately admit that it can be challenging but I am truly overwhelmed when I think of how grateful I am to be a mother and wife.
We held our annual gingerbread decorating get-together and had friends over and were lucky to have Aunt Jo Jo visit us. We had yummy soup and had a blast being creative making our gingerbread houses. We visited Santa a few times this year and it is always magical to watch our little girls look at Santa with such amazement in their eyes. We visited Bakersfield right before Christmas and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in LA. Aunt Jo Jo came to visit for Christmas and it was fun to have her with us especially when Tye will head off to work we get a chance to hang out and have sister time. The day after Christmas we went to Pine Mountain Club in Frazer Park and stay with Tye's family in a cabin they rented. All of his siblings, parents, and grandmother were there. His parent's plan this trip about every other year and we have a really fun time together. This year there was plenty of snow to kick around and make snow angels. Khalei's favorite was to lick the snow and make snow angels. Kendyl's favorite was scaring everyone as she walked up and down the spiral staircase and jump through holes under the stairs. Kendyl earned her first black eye early December when she was wearing some of Tye's shoes. She was walking and tripped into a little table. That black eye lasted for a long time. We recieved many stares during that time and fun comments. :) After our trip with all the Meeks family we went back to Bakersfield and celebrated New Years with my mom, sister, and brother. We had so much fun playing games that we lost track of time and about a minute before the clock struck midnight we realized the time and had a fun celebration.
Well, there it is, our life in 2007. I could go into more detail but I would be surprised if you made it this far to read the end. We love you all and are so lucky to have you in our lives. We are moving to Bakersfield at the end of January and we will let you all know when we find our first house.
We took a trip to Utah in January because my grandfather passed away. We enjoyed seeing extended family that we had not seen in some time. My grandmother had passed away the previous year and we were sad we were unable to go. So we jumped on the opportunity to see family from both sides of my parents. We spent Easter with good friends we have made here in LA and Tye's little sister Lacey came. We were so happy she came to spend time with us. Tye and Khalei participated in their first March of Dimes walk-a-thon in April and we were able to raise money with the help of family and friends for this wonderful cause. It was really special to us to support this casue since Khalei was a preemie. I wasn't able to walk with Tye and Khalei because I was at a rehearsal for a Temple program and Kendyl was needed also in the program. The girls celebrated their birthdays in May. Kendyl turned 1!!! Khalei turned 3!!!. We had a friend party for Khalei and I made her a strawberry shorcake cake at her request, and it was a blast. We had it at the park and I set up a treasure hunt for the kids and they played games and had fun. She talked about it for weeks, oh wait, she still talks about it. We even turned it into a bedtime story. We were very lucky to get to celebrate Kendyl's first birthday in San Diego with all of Tye's side of the family. We watched our awsome little nephew play beach soccer during the day and had a great family party that night.
Well, June was our big vacation month and as I mentioned in a previous blog we spent time in Bishop, Yosemite, visited friends in Salinas, and then spent more time with friends and family in Bakersfield. Tye and I took our first river rafting trip together with our good friends the Walkers and we got to jump off of rocks into the river, awsome!! We are so grateful to them for such a fun time. Wow, we wish we could replay that month over anytime we wanted. Also, during this month of seemingly fantasy Tye and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. We left the kids with Grandma and Aunt Jo Jo for a couple of days. It was our first time leaving them both for two nights. We were a little nervous and talked about them most of the time we were away, but we really enjoyed the time alone. Tye surprised me with a new outfit and a very nice dinner on Hollywood Blvd. and then with tickets to Wicked. I had wanted to go for some time. So when he wipped out the tickets from his back pocket, after tricking me in to believing that he sharted his pants after our nice dinner and dragging me to the car, I was shocked and excited (He always seems to have something up his sleeve). Then, to see the show from the second row, I was so amazed. I love to see the theatre and to see it so close made all of the music and acting even more powerful.
In July my sisters from Texas, Arizona, and Utah went to Bakersfield and so all of my siblings and mother were able to spend time together. It was great to make such good memories and to watch the neices and nephews play together. I am so lucky to have 4 sisters and 1 brother whom I look up to and admire for how amzing they have become.
In August we celebrated my mom's birthday and we were very lucky that she came to visit us. I wanted her to have a fun day so we took her to the Doughboy's Cafe (I saw it on the Foodnetwork as an LA standout cafe) and it was great food. Then we took her to the Skirball Cultural Arts Center and we went to the Noah's Ark Exhibit. It was so interesting to see how inventive they were in creating Noah's Ark and all of the animals. They made them out of everyday objects including different types of metals, ropes, etc. The creators definately had a vision and knew what they were doing.
Throughout the year we enjoyed getting to know new friends, family picnics, beach time, tennis, dinners with friends, visits to the Zoo and our monthly ward play group outings like the Travel Town Train museum. Myself and 4 other church moms organized a one day a week preschool for our little ones. They all did so well and it was so fun to watch them learning together. The girls and I spent alot of time at our local YMCA this past year. I got to take classes in cycling, kickboxing, yoga, and pilates just to name a few. We signed Khalei up for her first ballet dance class at our YMCA and she loved it. Most of her friends that we live close to are boys and they do alot of fun things together but they don't for some reason do ballet. :) Tye and I would often play basketball at the church either late wednesday nights or early saturday mornings. Tye's schedule was often busy so I would pack up the girls and the laptop and head to the church at about 9pm. I would lay Kendyl in a nearby room with lots of blankets (she always went right to sleep and never woke up) and set Khalei up with a movie. It was so fun to be out running the court with the guys. Tye played in a couple of charity golf tourneys and of course he played softball with the office team and did a great job. We took our annual trip to Las Vegas in September and we stayed with Tye's brothers family and had fun spending time with them and Tye's parents. He also had alot of fun hunting with his brother and brother-in-law this past year.
In October, we took our annual trip to Disneyland and met our good friends the Sweeny family and our good friend Alisa and her daughter. I got a great deal on our tickets through Craigslist and so when we got there we uprgraded to season passes and we went again in November when Tye was off work. Also, in October Tye and I ran our first 5k Volkslauf run together with some friends from Bakersfield. The Volkslaug is a military mud run with over 20 different obstacles and more mud than you can imagine to run sometime swim through, and although I am sure Tye wanted to run ahead of me many times he stayed right beside and we crossed the finish line together. There were many high walls and if you can imagine Tye kneeling down on all fours so I could climb on his back and jump over. This was a reoccurring theme and although I was much more excited to run this race than Tye originally was, he is know commited to running it every year. For Halloween Khalei was Cinderella and Kendyl was a Princess Fairy they were so cute to see all dressed up.
We celebrated Thanksgiving a few times with family and friends. Tye typically works on the holiday days so we travel before or after to spend time with family. Then on the day of we have been blessed to spend a little time with our little family and friends.
December was such a busy month full of great experiences. On December 1st I performed in our ward production called "Syncing in the Rain". When I agreed to participate I was a little hesitant, but I thought it would be fun. Come to find out I was one of the only solo acts and instead of a fast upbeat Christmas song like I assumed it would be, it was a serious but beautiful song called "The Best Gift". Believe it or not this experience was a type of dream come true I always wished I could sing and perform in front of others. But lacking the great singing part a lip synching production is the next best thing.:) It was a very memorable experience and it was alot of fun. I wanted to share the words of the song so that you will have idea of how this song effected me emotionally.
"The Best Gift"
The Best Gift
that I ever got
didn't really weight alot
it didn't have a ribbon round
and it sometimes made a terrible sound
The best of all
it seems to me
it wasn't 'neath the Christmas tree
but yet I guess I'd have to say
that it made all the other presents, twice as gay
the best gift that I've ever want
I'd always wanted most to hold
yet in my dreams, of sugar and spice
I never dreamed it could be, so nice
The best gift that I'll ever get
was sometimes dry and sometimes wet
was usually pink, but often times red
as it laid so innocently it it's bed
The best gift of the year to me,
what I hold most dear to me
The gift that simply drove me wild
was a tiny, newborn, child.
Yes, I cried but only at the end. I think these words often explain how I feel about the gift of motherhood. I definately admit that it can be challenging but I am truly overwhelmed when I think of how grateful I am to be a mother and wife.
We held our annual gingerbread decorating get-together and had friends over and were lucky to have Aunt Jo Jo visit us. We had yummy soup and had a blast being creative making our gingerbread houses. We visited Santa a few times this year and it is always magical to watch our little girls look at Santa with such amazement in their eyes. We visited Bakersfield right before Christmas and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in LA. Aunt Jo Jo came to visit for Christmas and it was fun to have her with us especially when Tye will head off to work we get a chance to hang out and have sister time. The day after Christmas we went to Pine Mountain Club in Frazer Park and stay with Tye's family in a cabin they rented. All of his siblings, parents, and grandmother were there. His parent's plan this trip about every other year and we have a really fun time together. This year there was plenty of snow to kick around and make snow angels. Khalei's favorite was to lick the snow and make snow angels. Kendyl's favorite was scaring everyone as she walked up and down the spiral staircase and jump through holes under the stairs. Kendyl earned her first black eye early December when she was wearing some of Tye's shoes. She was walking and tripped into a little table. That black eye lasted for a long time. We recieved many stares during that time and fun comments. :) After our trip with all the Meeks family we went back to Bakersfield and celebrated New Years with my mom, sister, and brother. We had so much fun playing games that we lost track of time and about a minute before the clock struck midnight we realized the time and had a fun celebration.
Well, there it is, our life in 2007. I could go into more detail but I would be surprised if you made it this far to read the end. We love you all and are so lucky to have you in our lives. We are moving to Bakersfield at the end of January and we will let you all know when we find our first house.
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