Our Newest Friend

These are pictures of McKay Miller. He is a precious little miracle sent to our good friends Nathan and Mary Lynne, who waited a long time to get him here. We love them so much! Kaeleb prayed every night last year that they would get to have a baby (as did many friends and a whole lot of family) and after Mary Lynne got pregnant he prayed for the baby in her tummy every time he said a prayer. McKay is proof that Heavenly Father hears our prayers.

Toxic Perfectionism

As you can see from the pictures up top, we are nearly done with the yard. We got the rocks delivered on Friday and had a gravel spreading party on Saturday with family, friends and the good ol' Elder's Quorum. Tam and Kwint's Ma helped me picked out plants and trees and we let our green thumbs loose after the gravel was laid out. We had so much fun!! We really appreciate all the help and love how it looks so far. We got river rock delivered this morning for the dry washes and will be ordering the sod later this week. Yay!!
Recognizing that I am opening myself up for ridicule from certain nameless individuals who know who they are.... Last weekend (the 15-17th) Kwint played Mr. Mom while I went to a TurningLeaf Seminar. (Kwint's work puts them on.) It was a fabulous experience. They are emotional Growth Seminars. Yes, I know many of you are thinking, "If Gina grows any more emotional the world may collapse from the sheer intensity of it all." It's true. I went to learn to manage those crazy emotions and become more successful at my life, and I feel like I learned a lot.

One of the things I am trying to tackle as a result of what I learned about myself is "toxic perfectionism" as they call it. I learned that I am good enough even if my house is a mess and I don't get everything on my list done. I have tried to have more fun with the kids and am trying to relax a bit. The result of this is that my laundry has been piled sky high for a week and I haven't cleaned my house. I did scrub the toilets, cuz that's just gross, but nothing else. But now I am sitting in this filthy house trying to decide if I was more uncomfortable stressing myself out to get everything done or relaxing and feeling stressed later because there is no order around me. So, how do I find the happy medium and does anyone have any ideas on balance? Some of you are like me, some of you love to play and don't care if the house is a mess. Some of you are inbetween, relaxed yet productive and I want to know your secret.

Yesterday (Memorial Day) we went for a hike with the family in Snow Canyon. We had so much fun!! We also had a BBQ with our neighbors and enjoyed ourselves quite a lot. I know that those of you up North have had a long winter, but the weather here has been like the perfect long spring.... it has been so wonderful. Kwint and I feel like Heavenly Father gave us a present, just for us.

Brennan has two teeth now. He didn't teethe as horribly as I expected him to, I am quite pleased. He thinks that he is very big and is saying several words. I think he may be preparing a speech for his 1st birthday. He has been saying "Hunna, hunna" when he is hungry and if the food isn't in his hands within 10 seconds it becomes very loud "Hunna! Hunna! Hunna! Hun-na-na-na-na!!!!" He also says book, ball, light, and more. (They sound like boot, bah, la, and mowa) He even has a sentence or two- "Mama Baba!" "Mama, hunna!" and "Hi Dad." When he crawls into a room he says "Hila." (Hello) It is very cute. Who's got time to be 8 months old? He wants to be 3 like his bro.

Kaeleb calls Brennan "Bray". It is a nickname he made up and it stuck. He takes good care of him. Kaeleb is playing with his friend Josh today and I just heard him say, "Guess what Josh? When I grow up I am going to be a knight." Josh said, "Hey, you just made a mess." to which Kaeleb responded, "You are a food waster." and then "We're bigger than each other but you are still my friend." I love their conversations.

Now, since "Bray" is asleep I am going to make an attempt at a little house cleaning.

Family and friends

Some random funny pictures from our week... getting ready for bed is a serious affair in our home.


Brennan is a physical wonder, wasting no time being a baby. As you can see, he is climbing...
and standing....
and thinks that he is very big indeed.


We had all sorts of fun this weekend. It was a Superweekend. On Friday our little Kemp Family went for a nice evening hike. I know that everyone up North has had a long, cold winter, but we are loving it- it means down here we are having a long, warm spring. (The heat will come, and when it does we'll wish we were up North...) Anyway, it was so pleasant and the desert bushes are all in bloom. We hiked around admiring all the scenery and feeling grateful we are here.

We had a spontaneous visit from the Woodard Family from Saturday to Monday morning and it was so much fun. We had a wonderful time talking and working. (Dustin worked on the computer and Shalyce helped with the sprinkler pipes. It takes a good friend to not mind working on vacation.)

Brennan quickly became enraptured by Dustin and spent the weekend begging for his attention. We were somewhat shocked. This, our separation anxiety laden little guy who cries if anyone even makes a movement that could be construed as wanting to hold him, was trying to jump out of my arms and fly into Dustin's. It was really sweet.

Kaeleb and Kaitlyn were quite the pair. They played all weekend and have quite a lot in common. She is a woman after his own heart. She loves to get bad guys, too. They teamed up against little Kiera, the "monster" and protected us all. I asked her what her favorite movie is and without hesitation she said "Spiderman."

On Saturday night Kwint and I went to a fancy (black tie) dinner at the Entrada Clubhouse. It was a "Gala" that benefited the doctor's free clinic of St. George. We made a donation to them to pay for a gourmet dinner. We learned that gourmet means small portions of weird food. But dessert was... WOW-good. We enjoyed getting all dressed up, it was a bit like going to prom.

On Sunday morning the kids were playing Duck, Duck, Goose with Dustin. Kaitlyn and Kaeleb were sitting on the floor when she leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Kaeleb blushed and covered his cheeks with his hands. I asked "What did she say?" He said softly, "She said... I love you!" and giggled. I said "What will you say back to her?" He said "Thank you." So cute.

Mother's Day was fabulous for us. Dustin and Kwint made chicken burritos and changed the poopy diapers. We are thankful for their friendship and think the world of them.

Monday morning Alan and Angie came to see us. (My big brother and his oh-so-sweet girlfriend who we hope to see become more-"Aunt Angie" would be nice, but we won't be pressuring him except in places like this where he can't stop me until it is too late...)

We had the very best day ever. Both boys love their Uncle Alan and were smitten by Angie, as were we all. Brennan went right to him-- twice in one weekend, it was amazing!! He even let Alan rock him to sleep. This is Brennan smiling at his uncle. Wow! That's love!

Kwint had the morning off so we all went to the temple visitor's center and toured the exhibit there with amazing bronze sculptures of Jesus. They were so beautiful and full of emotion. The flowers on the temple grounds were bright and vivid and it felt really peaceful to be there.

After lunch we did puzzles and played a good game of living room baseball. Kwint had to go back to work, so the rest of us went up to climb around Dixie Rock. It was really windy, but the view was nice and while I was feeding Bren in the car, Alan, Angie and Kaeleb found a very fascinating grasshopper which he told me was camouflaged. On their way back to car I watched Kaeleb hug Alan's leg and I felt so happy and blessed to see my son bonding with my brother that I love so much.

After that we went to the Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson's Farm. We learned about fossils and footprints. Kaeleb loves dinosaurs, so I was glad he got to see it. Then we went home where Kaeleb monopolized Angie and Alan bounced the baby.

After dinner we had FHE and went for ice cream. It was strangely cold outside (May usually brings high 90's but it felt like high 50's-big dark rain cloud in the sky) and the ice cream didn't help, but I was willing the day to never end and I still feel happy in spite of a huge pile of dishes, 4 loads of laundry yet unfinished, and a teething baby who refuses to be put down. (I am typing one handed and he keeps trying to pull out my earrings and eat all the cords.)

Now I need to go clip his nails cuz he's scratching the heck out of my neck and then I will tackle that laundry.

The Skywalker Family

I'm short on time, but here's a brief look at our past 2 weeks.

We went on a mini vacation, which we very much needed and enjoyed. We went to Grandma's and had a great time with her and Gpa.

We spent a fun evening with our friends- we love you guys, thanks for being with us.

We went to the Children's Treehouse Museum in Ogden where Kaeleb played hard and pretended many fun things, and Brennan drooled on everything within a 1/4 mile radius of himself.

We spent a day at Gateway and visited the Discovery Gateway museum where again, Kaeleb pretended and experimented and this time Brennan slept through it all.

Last week was fairly routine, except for when the doctor diagnosed Brennan with allergies and instructed us to give him Benadryl before bed. For the first time in his entire life of nearly 8 months, he slept through the night for 2 nights IN A ROW! (Making his sleep through the night grand total: 3 times.) We felt so good that we hardly knew what to do!

Brennan is now climbing up to standing against the furniture and trying to scoot along it. He just can't wait to be walking and doesn't think he has time to savor all the baby stuff. We, on other the hand, wish he would stay small just a little longer.

One story to finish it all off.... many of you heard this while we were up North, so feel free to skip to the end. For posterity's sake, we can't leave it out of the blog....

We took Kaeleb to play at his friend Carter's house. Carter has 5 older siblings and they are amazing kids. They all went outside to ride bikes. Kaeleb didn't have his bike there, so he was running back and forth chasing the bikes.

In the ensuing chaos he became disoriented and got lost in Carter's neighborhood. He had a moment of intelligence in which he decided to knock on the neighbor's door. However, when the lady of the house answered the door the moment was gone. He said, "This is the wrong house." Said the lady, "Whose house are you looking for?" Said Kaeleb, "I don't know." Lady: "What is your name?" Kaeleb: "Luke Skywalker." She chuckled. "What is your real name?" Insistently, "Luke Skywalker." The chuckling stopped.

The lady asked, "OK, what is your mom's name?" He answered "Princess Leia." She thought "Oh, great." and asked "What is your dad's name?" Naturally his answer was, "Han Solo." She said, "Does your Dad have a real name?" Of course he does, "Han Solo!"

She was quite worried about how she was ever going to find out who this child was or how to find his parents when the other boys found him and said "Oh, this is Kaeleb, he's with us."

Nice. We had a long talk about what to do when you are lost and the difference between pretending and reality. Just when I thought it was safe to let down my overprotective walls....