Fall Break

For Fall break we were so lucky and had some extra time to go home to La Canada for the weekend. My sister Kimberly, who's a freshmen at BYU, also came down with us. It was so fun to see my parents and my sister and her kids. We mostly just hung out at home but we made a trip to Santa Monica pier and celebrated Ethans 3rd birthday. I love my family!!

 Giant Macaroni and the pier..random

 Yes, that's a real bird. Some guy had a bunch of parrots

 As you can see from these pictures it is a very entertaining place. Do you see the ultra-flexable man in the background?

 Here is us with the rides in the background

 And even though it wasn't warm weather we had to sit on the beach for a little bit.

 Ethan's 3rd birthday!!

 Jen had me do a little photo shoot of Kylie.

Tyler is 25!!!

Tyler turned the big 25 on Sep. 30th! We had a fun day by me surprising him by going to get deluxe pedicures. Yes, he actually enjoyed it! We then went to the end of his brothers football game and then his family took him out to Texas Roadhouse for his dinner. I asked him what type of cake he wanted and he said he wanted a peach cake. Has anyone ever had a peach cake? Well I complained to him about that and he said an ice cream cake so I thought okay I'll see what I can do. So I found an ice cream cake recipe online and put peaches on top to make him a peach ice cream cake. 

 at Texas Road House they make you ride a saddle on your birthday while everyone gives a big "yeehaw!"

It was my sisters birthday the next day and she was planing on having a bonfire with her friends. So I thought it would be a great situation to have a surprise party for Tyler on his birthday and see some of his old high school friends. That way I could say we're going to my sisters birthday bonfire and then there would be another bonfire with his friends. Well, it sounded like a great idea until I only had 1 couple and my sister and myself confirm to go to the bonfire. The day before there were a couple of more confirmations and then a lot of maybes so I didn't know what to do. But I figured oh well, I guess we'll just see if anyone shows up. First of all it was a huge pain to convince Tyler to come because we had to miss his brothers football game...oh no! (said sarcastically)... but he finally agreed. Then we go and help kimberly get her fire started for her birthday bonfire and I wait to see if anyone shows up. Tyler and I went to get something from the car and we found our friends the Downings playing on the playground! yay someone showed up so I told Tyler surprise and we had a little party with the 4 of us and the Downings adorable 1 year old. A little later another couple, the Bowles come with their 2 week old baby!...and then the arrivals stopped. SO we had fun with our little group of 6 and decided to stay away from the fire with a 1 year old and 2 week old. It was so great to see a couple of friends that we haven't seen forever. I guess it was just a bad weekend with everyone being out of town conference weekend and missionary reunions. We also realized at that point that our days of having bonfires and random outings aren't going to be as easy now that the majority of our friends have babies and we will soon be joining them. Next time we'll just watch the football game at our house haha. Oh, well, at least I tried!

The Downings left before I remembered to take a picture but here's us with the Bowles!

 Kimberly's Birthday Bonfire

Our Birthday Bonfire


And last but not least...On Sunday we celebrated Tyler, my sister and our cousins birthday (they had 3 birthdays in a row) at my grandparents house!

The Post You've All Been Waiting For!!!

That's right folks! Tyler and I are going to have a baby!!! I am already 4 months along and due around March 10!! YAY!

I've been having to keep it a secret because I had to wait until school has been in a session for a few weeks to tell the parents at my school. We are VERY excited and feel so blessed to start our own little family. I've been extra blessed because I haven't been sick at all and feel awesome! (Thank goodness with teaching!) I'm going to teach up until my due date and then I'll have a long term sub until the last month of school and hopefully I'll go back for that.

The way I told Tyler I was pregnant was by wearing a bib that says "I Love Daddy" around my neck when he walked in from work. I was SO scared to tell him because I think I was still in shock myself (We did plan it but it happened so fast!)
We told our families by wearing T-shirts that said "I'm going to be a Mommy! -Tyler's said Daddy" It was funny to have them read it and see the expression on their faces!!


Here's me 4 months along. Just a little bump! It's kind of the awkward stage where my normal close are getting tight but my maternity clothes are too big.
Oh and I have to tell you how Tyler told our ward. Sooo awkward....He went up to bare his testimony yesterday at church and got up and said "So the last couple of weeks when my wife and I have been talking to people I've noticed people's eyes going to her navel area. Well we wanted to clear that up for you. I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am for the blessings of procreation" and then he went on to bare his testimony. What a goof! haha

Going For a Walk in Canberra

Okay! So Tyler and I decided that we can rarely take walks around our neighborhood anymore. We decided a couple of days ago to go for a walk. We left at 5:30pm and came home at 9:30 pm!!! How you may ask is that possible? And how far did we walk? Well, I'm sure it wasn't even a mile walk. So this is what we did...

. 5:30pm we leave. We walk out the door and our landlord upstairs is cleaning the yard. We stop and talk for about 15 minutes and Tyler can't help but to pull a few weeds..

.Tyler decided we should walk to his parents house to drop off his computer to his mom for some work stuff (they live just around the block) so that we did...

. We get invited to stay for dinner, so that we did...

. We got put on dog duty to walk the dog and the neighbors dog, so that we did...

. We walk a little ways up the street and walk into some neighbors we've never met so we had to stop and stay hi. How long did we stop and stay hi for? Well if you know Tyler the talker it was probably about a half hour..or more...

. Meanwhile a stake party was going on next door and we run into all of these people going into the party...

. We finally escape and cross the street when a car drives by and Tyler of course knows them so they roll down the window to chat...

. We finally get back to the parents house to drop off the dogs and the neighbors have a few couples of the ward over talking and about 10 kids are running around. So of course we stop and talk. We get offered to eat cookies and an ice cream cone, so that we did and probably gained more calories than we lost on the walk...

. We finally escape that situation and keep walking until we run into someone else on a walk in the ward. We stop and chat for about 10 minutes and then she decides to walk back to her house with us...

. We drop her off at her house and walk towards our house and we see a neighbor cleaning their pool. We stop and talk for another 15 minutes. It gets dark. We feel a couple of rain drops so we use it as an excuse to leave...

. Finally we make it home around 9:30 pm.

Thus the life of living in Utah in a tight knit community where everyone knows everyone...and if you don't? And especially if you do... You stop and talk..so that we did.

Burk Reunion!

When we went to California, the first weekend we were there we had the Burk Reunion which is my mom's side of the family (Burk is her maiden name) Its been about 10 years since the last time we had a reunion so it was really great to see everyone. All of my Mom's siblings were there but we were missing a lot of the cousins. We went camping at a Lake Piru which is where my Grandpa use to take his kids camping. My favorite part was definitely sitting around the camp fire and hearing my uncles sing. They all play the guitar and have the most gorgeous voices. (Too bad I didn't get that gene.) I really could sit all day listening to them. Tyler called them a bunch of hippies haha.




Everybody!


My Mom and her siblings


I was always super close to my Uncle Rob


Poor Tyler got sick


Me and my Cousin Christine. We were inseparable as kids!


Classic Uncle Dave


We started a horseshoe tournament. Tyler and I were rocking it but somehow it never got finished.



We did some fine activities like Kayaking ...



and eating yummy foodThis is a coat we made at a reunion when we were really little. (My Grandpa's name is Joseph) We all got our own patch to write a name on. Someone saved it and brought it!

California Lovin

I got to spend 2 whole weeks with my family when I went home. Tyler stayed for one week and then he went back to UT to work. Some of the fun things we did....

* Walk around Venice Beach (my favorite part is the graffiti wall they have where anyone is aloud to do graffiti on it. Darn too bad I forgot my spray paint in my other purse)





* See Kimberly Graduate..I'm SO excited to have her be at BYU next year!



* Go to Griffith Park and ride the train, watch Ethan ride a horse and give Ethan his first ice-cream popsicle.










*Celebrate Jen's Birthday


*Celebrate Fathers Day




(This is my Dad's Uncle Ralph that came over for Fathers Day. We got a phone call from the police saying that they pulled over our Uncle for swirving on the road and they wanted my Dad to come get him. So my dad and Tyler go to pick him up and Tyler said that it was the best sight ever. They pulled up and there was Uncle Ralph folding his arms leaning against his maroon Cadillac with his Laker jump suite on, a gold chain necklace, and 3 cop cars behind him. haha!)


* Saw my High School Friends


* Went to La Jolla to see the Seals







* And went to the Burk Reunion which you will see in the next post!