April 2015: REAL Monarchs, Videos, and Baby Friends

This month was eventful for sure. The first two weeks of April David was super busy with school. He had three tests the first week, and the next week he had his big Intex project. He and his group had to design a working website in 5 days. They got the info on Monday and turned it in at noon on Friday, then presented Friday afternoon. That week of his big project, Kollyn and I went up to my parents house so we didn't distract him. He spent over 50 hours that week on the project, but it was definitely worth it. :) Kollyn got to hang out with her grandparents (even if it was only for one of the days we were there since they got home from vacation a couple days after we went up) and David did a great job on his project! I'm so proud of him and the dedication he puts to things!

And we had been invited to the REAL Monarchs soccer game that Saturday, April 11, by Kaylan and her fiance Tim (Thanks for inviting us!) and it was a lot of fun! It was a great way to blow off the steam from the week and my parents got to play with Kollyn and put her to bed at their house, which they love doing.  We went to dinner, Buffalo Wild Wings, and my contact ripped in half while in my eye, but it was such a fun night, that didn't even matter! We were really glad that things worked out so we could go and have some fun! (Even though the Monarchs lost)

The classic Dynes picture pose. ;) I love it.

Kollyn LOVES the outside. Going on a walk in her stroller, running around at the park, gathering sticks or rocks (she really loves rocks and will say "rock, rock, rock" really clearly whenever she sees one); it doesn't matter what it is, if we're outside, she's totally content. And she sleeps better so we make it a priority to have her run out all her energy outside. :) And she loves it! Some days it's kind of cold so we wrap her up like a burrito and she cracks up about it.

We are so lucky to live close to a lot of family. We have the Pass of All Passes and have fun going to the Trafalga in Lehi with my sister Melissa and her girls. Kollyn adores her cousins and loves to chase them around, give them hugs and kisses, play with them, and try to be like them. The last time we went, we rode on the carousal a bunch. She wasn't sure about it for the first minute of the first ride, but after that, she was all over it, saying "Wheeeeeeee!" as the horse went up and down. She wanted to ride it all afternoon. She's too small to ride any of the other rides there, so we ride on the carousal a lot and she loves it every time. :)

This was a hard one for me. I hate reptiles....they creep me out, scare the living daylights out of me, and just overall make me uncomfortable and scared. But, I try to put aside my fears and expose Kollyn to all kinds of things. She loved seeing all the snakes and lizards and turtles. She hissed like a snake and stuck her tongue out like a lizard whenever she saw one. I almost had a panic attack being so close to snakes, but it was worth it seeing how excited she got seeing the animals. The picture doesn't do it justice. She just laughed and shrieked and tried to touch them all, but never actually wanted to touch any of the ones that the keepers were holding.

This little girl really loves to stand on the balcony and watch and wait for Daddy to come home. And when she sees the garage door open, she gets so excited. It's definitely one of the best times of the day for her, having her Daddy come home to play with her.

She is just a curious little girl. She loves putting on people's shoes (these shoes belong to our friend Mark) and then walking around in them. And she walks really well in big shoes. She also loves that children's laptop. It plays quite a few songs and she knows exactly how to get it to play the songs she loves.

This is one thing I love. I've been rewatching all the episodes of The Big Bang Theory and this is what happens whenever hears the theme song come on, no matter what else she's doing. :) She loves to dance and bounce when she hears music. It's so cute and I love it.

David has indoctrinated her well. She'll bring me her Batman shirt, her Batman toy, or her Batman books and say, "Bama". She very much knows who he is, she sees him a lot (we have a big poster of Batman in our front room) and is a big fan. She pointed to him on each page of this book and said, "Bama" at each one.

We were lucky enough to be able to go to the Payson temple open house last week. It was so beautiful and I am excited for it to be dedicated. We were a little nervous that Kollyn would be upset or cry while we were there, but she didn't make any noise. She didn't fuss when they put the covers on her shoes, she held our hand while she walked, and didn't squirm or anything when we held her. I'm sure she knew how special this place was and what it is going to be and I love that we were able to experience this with her.

Kollyn really enjoys playing with other kids. This was her new friend that she made in Relief Society last week. They played on the floor and on the chairs next to us and kept themselves entertained most of the hour. It was awesome to be able to pay attention to the lesson and know she was occupied. This week they're going to let us start getting her use to nursery and we're really excited about that. She's so social I think she'll love being able to play with the other kids for a couple hours instead of having to sit with us in our classes.

Currently, she is obsessed with babies. Whenever she sees one she goes crazy saying, "Baby, baby, baby" and pointing until I acknowledge it and even that usually doesn't stop her incessant chattering about babies. Our friends have a little six month old baby girl and when they come over, Kollyn goes nuts. She likes to hold the baby's hand, "help" the baby play with her toys, and try and feed the baby the food from her tray.  She loves to jabber to the baby, smile at her, and laugh like they have some private jokes that no one else knows about. I love that she is really into babies, hopefully that means that when we do have another baby, she'll be more excited than jealous. I'm sure we'll go through the jealousy stage, but I hope that her love of babies and smaller kids helps make that phase shorter.

I have a bunch more videos of her doing super cute stuff like welcoming Daddy home, going through her list of animal sounds (She knows so many animal sounds and so many words that it's getting so much easier to communicate with her and I love that!!!!), and going down the slides by herself. Sadly, they're too big of files for the blog. But just know that they're super cute and I may or may not (but definitely do) watch them at least once a day to remind myself just how lucky I am to be this girl's mom. Some days it's hard to remember, like this last week she's been getting her molars and not sleeping as well as she's use to, and I need to be reminded that she's such an amazing kid and that we are beyond lucky to have her in our family. :) We love this little girl.

And that's pretty much the month. :) 

March 2015: Short, Sweet, and to the Point

March has been really relaxed. We've been finishing up the organizing of our new place, and by we I mean David because he likes doing that kind of thing and always ends up redoing it after I've done it, so I figure I'll let him do it in the first place. ;)

We did St. Patrick's Day with my parents. We made corned beef for the first time and it turned out really well, a lot better than I imagined it would. :) Next year I want to continue my family's tradition of dying foods green. And pink/red for Valentine's. I always had fun with that as a kid and would love to incorporate that into our traditions as well.

We got on a a walk every day after breakfast. It helps Kollyn sleep better (3 hours naps instead of no hour naps) so that in and of itself is incentive enough, but it also helps me a ton, especially since I went off my anti-depressants at the end of February, so getting outside has really helped me cope with that change. Luckily, I was on the lowest dose already so, while the process was difficult, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I had a few days where I was super nauseous and had no energy, but pushing though that helped it not last so long, thankfully.

And I have that ability to push through because of this adorable little face!

She is starting to really like swings. She'll say "Wheeeeeeee" and smile and giggle now. Before she was stone faced the whole time. If there is one thing this girl can do, it's have a stone face and no reaction. She'll do it a lot, especially when she knows we're wondering what her reaction is. David will drive the stroller all crazy trying to get any kind of reaction and she is stone faced. Silly little girl.

But there's no doubt she loves her Daddy. This little girl is 99% David. I'm pretty sure the 1% she got from me was liking Thin Mints ;) But in all seriousness, she is very much a Daddy's girl and has him wrapped around her little fingers. She runs to the door when he comes home and yells "HI DADADA!" and gives him a huge hug. She loves holding his hand, sliding down the slide with him, and snuggling with him on the couch. I love their relationship and I love watching it grow more and more as she gets older. I'm so glad she has been able to develop that bond with him. I know it means a lot to him that she loves him that much. 

These last few weeks at school have been really hard on all of us. He's been gone a lot of late nights doing projects and homework and has missed out on bedtime, which is normally Daddy time. Kollyn will stare at the door and say "dada da dada dada da" over and over, waiting for him to come. It breaks my heart, but it's only for a few more weeks. It makes David feel really bad he's not there for her when she wants him to be, but we both know it's unavoidable. He is just so ready to be over and can't wait to graduate, though now there have been some complications with that we're having to work through. But oh well. Soon school will be over and she'll have her Dad back. 

This girl is such a ham! She knows exactly how to make people laugh and will keep doing it. Once you start laughing, she starts laughing and her laughs are so contagious you can't help but keep laughing. It's a never ending circle of cute laughter and smiles. This is one of her current favorite things, putting a travel pillow on her head, and then trying to put it on my head. It makes her crack up and I have no idea why. She is just so cute and loves to make people feel better. I've had a couple days this month where I've been so upset and she'll come up to me, pat my shoulder (she watches me rub David's back so I think that's what she's trying to do), give me a big hung, a big kiss, and say "mamama." while giving me this huge grin. It's hard to be sad when that much love is coming your way. She definitely knows how to brighten a room, that's for sure.

And that's really about it. We go on walks all the time, can't wait for the pool to open (It looks like they might open it earlier than Memorial Day, since it's been so warm, because we've seen them taking the cover off and workers working on it so fingers crossed they open it soon!), and we're all ready for summer to be here. :)

February: Moving, My Birthday, and an RV

February wasn't super eventful. Which is how I like it. We had a few crazy weeks, but it was all fun crazy. :)

The end of January we got the keys to our new apartment. It's bigger and much nicer than where we've been. And Kollyn had a lot of fun "helping" us pack and unpack. As you can see, she's a master at it. ;)

This is our new entertainment setup, though it looks much nicer now that David has done some changes to the crazy wire fiasco. ;) We got the shelves at Ikea, designed ourselves, and they were cheaper than anything else we were finding. :) We are really happy with them. Since moving here, I have discovered a very real love for Ikea.

February 13 we went out to dinner at Olive Garden (one of my favorites)with a few friends for my birthday, an early birthday celebration. It was fun and we really appreciated having friends that we knew we would be able to get together with and have fun.

Valentine's Day was also my nephew's birthday and the day of my nephews' basketball tournament in Salt Lake. We went and K loved being showered with attention from her cousins and my dad and aunt. It was so fun to watch the boys play, even though they didn't win, and I think it's good to expose Kollyn to all kinds of different situations. I was nervous about how she'd do with the noise and the crowds, but she did amazing. It was a lot of fun!

These are the flowers that David got me for my "ValenBirthday" present. ;) I like having my birthday after Valentine's because that means flowers are typically cheaper.

I love watching them together and it's so fun that we get to have David home some days during the day. Kollyn loves to be outside. She'll bring me her shoes and want to go outside all the time. If she's upset, that's something that seriously helps her calm down. And being able to be outside with Daddy is a double win in her book, though this swing in our complex was not a big hit.

For my birthday we got a baby free night thanks to my parents and we went to PF Chang's and saw a movie. At PF Chang's we got the Great Wall of Chocolate for free just because we got lucky and the manager sat us and David asked him about it. And we got our drinks for free because the waitress spilled the water on David's leg. He took one for the team. And it was awesome! It was a fun night at dinner with him and being able to stay out as late as we want! Oh the luxury!
We also went and saw the Imitation Game. It was a great movie! I really enjoyed it. Such a fascinating time; I'm constantly amazed by the thought process some people have. I definitely wouldn't even have thought of building a machine for that. I will probably be buying it when it comes out. :) David and I were both really sad that it didn't win any awards at the Academy Awards. 

On the 25, Kollyn and I joined my mom and dad, sister, and 3 of her girls on a trip to Arizona to visit my grandpa in an RV. I was glad to see my grandpa and spend time with my family, but it was a really hard trip for me and Kollyn. I think if we do that again, it'll be once naps are no longer needed. But it was a fun trip.

She had fun not having to be buckled into her car seat and being able to sit and eat her snacks on the couch. And the stop at gas stations made her want to expand her already huge stuffed animal collection. :) Luckily we were able to get her away from the giant Minnie without any serious emotional damage.

She had a lot of fun running around in Gramps' yard with her cousins. She would chase them and they would run. She thought it was the best game ever. And probably could've done it for hours if we'd let her.

We went to the Camel Farm while we were there. It was a lot of fun! Decent price, lots of different animals, and for $1 you got a cup of feed, and it was a good sized cup. They had camels, obviously, and K was a little afraid of those because one of them tried to take the food cup out of my hand and it scared her. They also had birds, a white ferret, a kinkajoo, coati (like Talula that we met in Belize), a hinny (a mix between a male horse a female donkey) and a Zedonk. :)
It was fun to see the reaction of K to all the animals. She was very...indifferent to most of them. Which was very strange because normally she loves animals. I think it was just her initial fright from the camel.
And, at the end of our little excursion, she's finally starting to warm up to the animals and walks up to the donkey family, and they started braying,which resulted in the face in the last picture. It was so sad, but kind of funny too.

We went out to dinner twice while we were there. Both times helped me realize how strange this child of mine can be. She has no aversion to spice, in fact she loves it, and never was bothered by sour. How not bothered? Take a look at the pictures and video.....

That's how not bothered by sour she is.....such a strange child! Also, I didn't put those pictures up, but she DEVOURED the lemons.....like, rind and all. Needless to say, I brushed her teeth twice those days to hopefully get all the acid out. This is the first time she's ever eaten a lemon slice whole, and kept reaching for more of the lemons....she's so strange. But we love it! Keeps us on our toes, that's for sure!

We got to go swimming at the pool in Gramps' neighborhood. Kollyn really enjoyed it. We got some new balls at the flea market and she carried them around, threw them at my dad who watched from the side of the pool, and laughed and giggled the whole time. We swam around, she had a lot of fun jumping up and down in the water, and she finally started kicking when I told her to. Thankfully we have a pool in our complex so once it opens, we'll get to go swimming a lot. 

And some swimming videos, for your listening and watching pleasure. :)

This girl loves the water and once she got use to a pool again, since we hadn't been swimming in a while, she was so excited!

We got home from our excursion on March 1 and have been recovering ever since. ;) Not really but I was glad to be home again with David. I sure did miss him, even if it was only for a few days. I hope that I always miss him when I go on trips without him. :) Love it!

And love all of you! 

January 2015: Zoo (again), Tantrums, and Moving

We rang in 2015 up at my parents' house in Midway. We played games, watched Parks and Rec, and spent the night. The next day David went back to Orem to do a big video game day with his friends before the semester started, something that he needs to help himself mentally prepare. I spent the day with Kollyn and my parents. It was fun. :) I helped my parents with some things on the computer that they needed, Kollyn got to go play with the chickens which she loves, and it was fun to spend some time with my parents.

January was mostly pretty quiet. A lot of recovering from the holidays. And, from this video, you can see that someone wasn't too pleased with the holidays being over ;) (actually she was mad that I took the thermometer away from her, but we can pretend it's because Christmas was over)

This is the typical tantrum she throws, which she really only does if she's really tired. 

The first couple weeks looked like this. :) Lots of Baby Einstein. I wasn't feeling well so I was glad she was alright to entertain herself a lot so I could rest. She also likes to climb in things, up things, over things, anything that involves climbing, she tries it. Lately her favorite thing to climb is the step stool and she is getting really good at it. :)

This little girl LOVES to go on walks. Doesn't matter if she's in her stroller or walking, she loves it. 

We love having Luke come on Mondays to play in the afternoon. She gets so excited when I say, "Luke is coming today!" She says "YEAH!" and runs around. She loves showing him all her toys, playing outside, and running around with him.

This little girl also really loves books. She'll sit and let you read books to her for a long time, longer than she'll sit still for anything else. She'll bring you every book on her self and if you don't read it, she gets upset. Then she has you read them over at least one more time, usually two. She can't get enough of it! I love it! I can't get mad at her for bringing me books even if I do get tired of saying, "The cow says moo, the sheep says baa, three singing pigs say la-la-la. No no you say, that isn't right. the pigs say oink all day and night". I hope to continue to foster this love of reading.

 This girl also loves to shop (she's a girl so that's a given, right ;) ). If she's having a bad day, we go to the store. It helps both her and me to calm down and regroup. She loves people and being out and about really helps her to recharge; that's something I don't understand since I recharge best at home, but she's a very social girl. She also has now gotten really into standing in the basket of the cart, as you can see. This is how we Costco. :) She also loves to take things in with her when we go in. This Anna doll was a total score. We found it for $10 and she hasn't been able to go anywhere without it for two weeks She loves that doll. :)

The last Wednesday of the month from November through, I think March, is free at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake so we bundled up and went. I like getting out of the house, so does she, and she loves animals, so it was a win-win for both of us. Plus, it was free. Who can say no to that???

She didn't really want to get out of her stroller to take pictures. It was pretty chilly and overcast, it sprinkled a little, so I don't blame her for wanting to stay all bundled up and warm.

She loved watching the polar bear as he paced around in his enclosure. She even growled at him whenever she saw him.

We met up with Kelli and Luke there since they love playing together. They spent about 10 minutes holding hands before we left. It was so much fun. :)






We also found out at the end of the month that we got a really great deal on a condo in Pleasant Grove so we gave our 30 day notice at our place in Orem. This is an awesome place we've moved to (we got mostly moved in this past Saturday) and we are pretty sure we'll be very happy here. Three bedrooms, so for now K gets a play room. Eventually that room will be for a little sibling but that is down the road a ways. There are 2 playgrounds in the complex and a pool plus a hot tub in the clubhouse (also has a theater room and a racquetball court), and after we moved in, we realized this is the same complex that David's great-aunt lives in. :) And the clubhouse is where I had one of my bridal showers. :) Small world and we are very excited about this new adventure! We plan on being here for a while and are really excited about making this place our home. :)