La felicidad que se encuentra: Kyle, Jenny, Alexa, Tyler, Tad, Liam, Nathan, and Audrey

I'm kind of doing this blog partly as a way to keep in touch with family and friends and let them know what we're up to these days, as well as keeping a journal of sorts so I have something to look back to and remember this blur.  So, to keep along with the journal side of things, I wanted to post a quick note that I can look back to as a reference to a time when I felt prompted and amazed by the Lord's planning and timing in our lives.  I remember sitting through General Conference and thinking how strange it was (and sad) that so many people talked about losing small children and how they coped or applied the principles of the Atonement in their lives and gained stronger testimonies of the Plan of Salvation.  Now, as I look at the tragic events of the school shooting this week in Connecticut, I'm truly awestruck at the inspired messages from General Conference that came prior and discussed these very topics and how the Lord can help our families through what seem to b...

First of all, I am especially grateful for our sweet little girl and incredibly saddened by the loss to so many parents this week with the school shooting in Connecticut.  I don't even know what to say as far as how difficult that would be, even with the knowledge we have of eternal families and the plan that God has for us.  I also can't imagine the pain of those children who were there as witnesses to the tragedy of their friends and classmates at such a young age.  I love my family and can't imagine being without my cute, adorable Alexa who is running around the living room screaming "blankie!" at the moment and tickling Kyle. I guess I haven't written since before Thanksgiving.  We had a double header with the Singletons and Grandma Sweeny.  We spent Wednesday night at the Singletons and had Thanksgiving lunch with them and the Skankeys, and then headed over to Snowbird for dinner with Grandma, Kathi & Don, Hope & Quinn, and Rich & Wendy. ...

We’re up at Snowbird (a Utah ski resort) with Grandma Sweeny for the weekend, and Alexa happily brought her book after book to read to her while I made breakfast this morning.   She even brought Grandma a book about pets in Spanish, and Grandma was a total champ and just made up the story to go along with the pictures :).   People are napping, so I thought now would be a good time for a blog update. Alexa's new big thing is praying.   We sat down for lunch the other day and Kyle and I both took a bite of food and looked over to see Alexa sitting there in her high chair folding her arms and staring at us.  Haha, oops!  We stopped to pray with her before taking a second bite :).  She keeps us in line.  Last Saturday we prayed four times during lunch per her request.  She'll fold her arms and just stop eating and smile at us.  She hardly ever says "amen," and instead just claps and says "yay!" when the prayer is done. We've discovered t...

We've had a fun, busy last couple of weeks.  Here's proof (Alexa fell asleep on Kyle's lap while we were talking on the phone to my parents tonight--loudly, on speaker phone).  Sweet little girl. We've all kind have been sick, first Kyle, then Alexa, and now me.  Just the typical nasty cold going around, and Alexa still has a little cough and I am just at the beginning so the sinus headache is feeling really good right now.  Not.  I looked through my doctor's notes from Alexa to remind me what I'm allowed to take while pregnant and went through all our medicine in our cold section this morning, and I can't even take Airborne, let alone anything else we have.  Hence the 2.5 hour nap this afternoon.  That's the best medicine I can get, and it was glorious. Speaking of being pregnant, I promised Malori that I would post a belly picture, so we took one on our walk today. I am definitely showing much earlier with this little one than with Alexa, ...

I'm excited to announce that we went to the doctor yesterday for another ultrasound and I now have all my privileges reinstated!! Tear is healed and baby looks good, so we are very grateful.  As promised, I took Alexa to the park to celebrate.  We went swinging and ran around looking for flowers (dandelions). She has to stop and touch every flower she finds :). She insisted that her puppy come along. Maybe because she's a lazy bum and wanted to use him as a pillow!! We didn't get any really good ultrasound pictures from the tech (I should have made special requests!), but we saw lots of baby!  This was the ultrasound (20 weeks) where they check every little thing developing - every section of the brain, spine, chambers of the heart, kidneys, diaphragm, fingers, toes, blood flow, placenta, cord, measurements of head and waist (baby is 4 days bigger than the due date), etc. etc.  It's so fascinating to see all of that already developed and so teeny tiny...

I forgot to mention a few August updates in my last post, and have some more Alexa stories (as always)...First, Kyle (with the help of Uncle Paul and Todd--thank you!!) finished the stairs and they look awesome!!  He completely rebuilt them (ripped them down all the way to the drywall). Second, both Kyle and I were supposed to be in this work athletic competition in August, but I had to back out for obvious reasons.  Kyle still did the tennis and basketball tournaments and made me oh so proud.  He even got this funny little basketball trophy for taking third place.  The other tournaments that week included horseshoes, ping pong, foosball, golf, Wii dance, volleyball, and a triathlon. We went to Ikea for breakfast last Saturday (so delicious and cheap!) and bought Alexa a stuffed puppy while we were there.  She now takes it everywhere continuously saying "puppy, puppy, puppy!"  Speaking of the puppy, she even dragged it through toilet water l...