To Infinity and Beyond

This year Danny was thrilled to be Buzz Light Year for Halloween. His cousin Jaxon let him use his old costume and it fit perfectly! We had a festive dinner with Billings and all the kids looked fantastic.Eli Bear, Fall Fairy Brenna, Buzz, Asian Princess Leah, and Alex the Samurai. Danny's friend Elena was also visiting from Austin. She made a pretty cute giraffe, even if she didn't score too much candy. More importantly than candy, her parents did recover a missing engagement ring during their visit. HOORAY!
We met up with some other friends while we were trick or treating. Hunter, one of Danny's best buddies, was also Buzz. The two had so much fun chasing each other and blasting each other. One little person missed out on almost all the Halloween festivities because she was too tired. Though I knew Kaylee was too little to care, I got an idea in my head for her costume months ago. My friend Terri helped me put it together when moving had me too busy. And then, Kaylee wore it all of 20 minutes - 15 at the ward trunk or treat before she got too tired and then 5 more for these pictures. But, thanks anyway Terri. I think Kaylee makes the cutest Toy Story alien ever!


And on a totally unrelated note . . . I hate this phase Danny is in where he either refuses to smile or he says "Cheese" and gets this wacky grimace grin. Why can't he just show off his normal cute smile!?

3 years and 3 months

I decided to take a break from packing, painting, and decluttering to catch up on a little blogging. A couple weeks ago we celebrated Danny's 3rd birthday with a rocket birthday party at the park. The kids had fun building and painting their own rockets (with some help from moms).
Danny's lunch request was his dad's chicken wings. YUM!
We hunted for moon rocks (candy wrapped in foil), had a real rocket launch (and lost the rocket), broke open a rocket pinata, and ate rocket cake.



We had a family party on his actual birthday with presents and a treasure hunt provided by Leah. We love our busy 3 year old. It is so fun to watch him learning his letters, starting to draw pictures, helping around the house, negotiating punishments, and making jokes.

Kaylee hit her 3 month mark a few weeks ago too. She's starting to play with toys and really notice everything around her. She likes being upright in her exersaucer, the bumbo, or the bjorn. And her smile just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

Here she is with Aunt Lisa.
At the zoo with dad.
At the pumpkin patch with Danny and our friend Hailey. In her Bumbo chair with a toy.
And looking pretty on Sunday.
Sure love these two! They are growing up TOO FAST! But it's so much fun. Time to get back to packing.

Moving to Seattle

I'm supposed to be in bed right now, but I've been taking a stroll down memory lane, reading through four years of blog posts and watching my family grow and change. It's been an incredible journey.

And, a new stage in our journey is about to begin. I'm writing this post from a hotel room in Seattle, where my company is transferring us. Carrie and I are excited to move back to the West but we are also going to miss all of our friends in Houston.

So many firsts happened for us in Houston. My first "real" job. The first time I met Carrie and found out what it was like to really be in love. The births of both our first little boy and our first little girl. Our first home and our first dog. Evacuating for our first hurricane and hunkering down for our second. We will always have some amazing memories of our time in Texas.

We look forward to making some great new memories in Seattle! We are both intimidated by everything we are trying to get done in the next month to get ready to move - it will be quite an adventure. We hope our friends will come and visit us when we get settled.

The cost of good memories

Danny got some real spoiling during fair week. On the second day he ran up to G-Pops and said, "Hi G-Pops! Can we go buy stuff now?" Grandpa had already treated him to ice cream, a wagon ride full of cousins, carnival rides, and a new toy sword. Danny caught on a little too quickly.

It never ceases to amaze me how expensive EVERYTHING is at any sort of carnival or fair though. Once you enter the gates everything seems to cost at least twice as much as it should. For example, when else would you pay $3 for a slice of homemade bread with butter and jam? Most of the carnival rides cost between 3 and 5 tickets. Each ticket costs $1. So, for a 1 minute ferris wheel ride you're shelling out $4. Ridiculous, right? Sometimes an outrageous expense is worth it for the memory and experience though. Here is our memory.

Grandma Hong decided to take her grandkids on a few rides at the fair one morning. We chose the ferris wheel. The man said Danny was too short though, and he ended up in tears (Danny, not the man) while his cousins rode. Grandma let Danny choose the next ride. He'd had his eye on the pirate ship fun house all week. Interestingly, this ride had the same height restrictions, but Danny must have grown an inch between rides because they let him enter. Grandma handed over the highly overpriced tickets, led the crew in, and then the crew quickly led themselves right back out. "Too scary!" they shrieked. The tickets had already been purchased and handed over, so there was no other option but to force the kids through the scary pirate ship so they could have a good time. Mindy held Kaya by the hand and Grandma took Danny and the foursome made it through the "fun" house while Olivia and Lacy waited outside.

After that we decided to take a break from fair rides and explore some other venues. The kids had SO much fun. There were no tears of sadness or fear. Just smiles and fun.

Tractor rides. Free.Playing in the beans. Free.
Digging in the beans. Free. Playing in the hay. Free.
Walking around with family at the fair. Priceless.

Maybe next year we'll just head straight for the beans. Thanks again for a fantastic 09 fair G-Pops and Granny! What is the most outrageous thing you've spent money on to create an amazing memory?

Baby Kaylee x 3

Shortly after Kaylee was born, her three-year-old cousin Kaya decided she wanted to be called Kaylee as well. Having an extra baby Kaylee during fair week was a little confusing at times.
"Kaya, can you come here?"
"No. I'm baby Kaylee."
It became particularly confusing when G-Pops bought Kaya a doll at the fair.
"Kaya, I mean baby Kaylee, what is your dollies name?" I asked.
She got a big grin before responding. "Kaylee."

Kaylee meets . . .

One of the best parts of our visit to Idaho was that Kaylee finally got to meet most of Matt's side of the family. I missed getting pictures of her with everybody, but here's the ones I did get. Kaylee met . . .

Cousin Olivia

Cousin SarahCousin Corbin
G-Pops
Grandma Angie

Cousin Calie
Aunt MindyCousin Kaya
And some scary fair guy . . . . oh wait.
That's just dad with some facial hair and a teriyaki-stained apron.

Kaylee rode in the Bjorn a LOT during fair week and even adjusted well to napping at the fair.

Very well.

Bull Riding

For some reason, the mechanical bull really called to me this year at the fair. Did I take a ride though? Nope. Instead I let my 2 year old son face the beast. Twice.

Apparently he had enough fun that he did want to do it again. After watching Danny ride, some of his cousins decided the bull was a little too scary though. Uncle Lance rode instead. Maybe if rec management doesn't work out, Lance can become a professional cowboy.

Pretty in Pink

Kaylee had a fun trip to Richland too. Really, as long as she's got milk and sleep, she's pretty happy. She had so much excitement on the trip that she started sleeping really well at night. Hooray! Kaylee got to hang out with Uncle Aaron and Joy . . . not sure who was furrier. :) Grandpa Couch loved giving Kaylee snuggles, and didn't even mind that she was often on edge and screamy when he had her. "Don't worry," he whispered to Kaylee. "You'll like me a lot when you get older."
"Don't worry," he told me. "I don't take it personally." Grandma Couch didn't have quite as much Kaylee time because she was too busy bear hunting. Kaylee was not a huge fan of the PJs I made her and Danny wear. I'm not sure if it was because they were orange and yellow or because they matched her big brother. Personally, I thought they looked pretty cute.Kaylee did seem to enjoy Sunday, though, when she got to be pretty in pink.