It's Official...

Gabbie has had her first time being sick. We put her to bed last night at her normal time and then she woke us up at 11:45 crying. I walked into her room and she had thrown up all over her bed, floor, and animals. While I cleaned up, Kyle held her and tried to comfort her because she was super scared and had no idea what was going on. I had to run to the store to get some stuff for her at 12 then we tried to get her to sleep again. As she was dozing off, she threw up again and had to be completely stripped down to her diaper. She finally fell asleep cuddling in my arms with a blanket wrapped around her. Luckily she slept the rest of the night.

So for all those parents out there, what are some things that you do with/for your children when they are sick? (especially when they are still pretty young)

Cool Website

So if you are anything like me, you might get pretty tired of cooking the same thing month after month. I found this super cool website through my ward's blog. It is called Every Day Meals (www.everydaymeals.com). We usually plan out our dinner menu a week or two in advance and we were starting to get pretty tired of eating the same stuff every few weeks and I love to try new things when it comes to food.

This website is awesome. It actually plans out an entire month of meals for you. You can look at things day by day, week by week, or monthly. There is even a place where you can add in your own idea for food instead of what is already on there. Another super cool thing is that the website will generate a grocery list for you (which you can then uncheck the things that you already have at home). There are also a ton of recipes on the site.

We have experimented with the menu on the site for the last couple of weeks and have really liked all the things we made. So, if you want a little less hassle in making and knowing what to make (which is what I sometimes struggle with) then check it out.

One last Obama Post

So, as it has gotten closer and closer to the presidential election, it has seemed that Christy and I have had to repeatedly defend the reason why we are supporting Obama considering that we both were raised in fairly Republican families and we live in a very Republican state.

After itemizing my reasons on Facebook today (at the expense of all of my friends who were spammed because I didn't realize that a notification would be sent for every comment I made to my "status" (I apologize again for the spam) to all of my friends) and realizing that the election is only 3 weeks away, I decided that it might be a good idea to rewrite those reasons here on our blog so that people can better understand why we, two people whose votes for Obama will really not make much of a difference considering we live in Utah, would be such big supporters of him.

In posting this on here, I want it to be known to everyone that neither Christy or I have anything personal against John McCain, Sarah Palin (although she does annoy me on a regular basis), or the McCain Campaign. We have been troubled at times by our perception that he twists the truth or tells half-truths related to Obama's history, but we want it to be known that the only real reason why we do not support him is that we believe that we agree more with Obama than we do with McCain on the direction that our federal government needs to go in the next four years.

We are registered Unaffiliates.

(While I (Kyle) am the sole author of this blog post and take full credit for it's content, Christy has approved that I put it on here and has let me know that she is in agreement with all of the points that I am going to articulate here.)

We support Obama because we believe that trickle-down philosophies of government (the belief that if we support the upper classes and businesses of our country, and ensure that they remain wealthy, their wealth will "trickle-down" to even the lowest within the country and the whole will prosper) are faulty. We believe that prosperity and wealth abound when we "take care of the least among us".

We also support Obama because he believes that our government should have it's priorities centered in America before we should spend billions of dollars overseas fighting undefined wars.

We also support him in that he believes that true Democracy extends beyond our own government meaning that he understands that we need to participate in discourse ... Read Morewith other governments and come to a collective agreement on a course of action before we make decisions that will affect those who may not live on our soil (like, for instance, invading a country that we believe might house terrorists or nuclear weapons).

We also support him because his education policies center around: making sure that teachers are some of the ones who define the assessment of student success (rather than standardized tests), Creating and supporting ELL or ESL programs that try to bridge the language gap for immigrant students by appreciating their native languages and helping them to find common language ground (as opposed to having policies centered around English being the rule (American Native Language) and ELL programs designed to bring the students to the standard), restructuring the tenure idea based on teacher input before assigning merit pay, and budgeting additional federal funding for education.

We also support him because we believe that America's gun control laws need to be reformed. Like him, I believe that there is a big difference between a hunting rifle used in the Utah back-country and an assault rifle used in gangwars in Metro America.

While we disagree with Obama on the position of abortion (We believe that Roe V. Wade should be overturned as we believe that the woman had a choice at the time of intercourse, that there are other options for not having to care for a child (adoption, etc.), and we believe that a baby is a person from the time of their inception), we still support him because we have the belief that the only influence that the president will have on the issue of abortion is his appointment of judges. Because we believe that history has shown us that Supreme Court Judges are independent beings and they often rule different than the way the president who appointed them might have thought that they would, we don't believe that Obama would really have that much of an effect on this issue.

We also support him because he seems to place a priority on diversifying America's Energy usage.

We also support him because he believes in a tiered tax code (that those who make the most money will pay the most taxes and have the least amount of tax breaks, those who make the least will pay the least taxes and have the most tax breaks) and he has... Read More promised that there will be no tax hikes for anyone who makes less than $250,000.

We also support him because I believe that he has shown (through his previous relationships) that he is willing to participate in discourse with people who he doesn't completely agree with and tries to see where they are coming from. In cases of people with extreme ideals and philosophies he has shown that while he listens to them he makes decisions to keep his perspective even after seeing theirs.

Anyway, while I don't think that this is an exhaustive list of reasons why we support Obama, these are likely the biggest.

Tagged

I've been tagged by my friend Megan.

1- where did you meet your husband?
We lived in the same apartment complex. He used to hang around our apartment at the beginning of Fall semester trying to see which girl in the apartment would be nice to date. (Because he was flirty with all the girls in the apartment, I didn't give him the time of day. Plus I was totally crushing on someone else.)

2- what was the first thing you said to your husband?
Maybe something along the lines of: "Leave me alone, It's none of your business." (he was trying to get me to talk about the guy I had a crush on and I barely even knew him then)

3- where was your first date?
He claims that our first date was going out to lunch together. I have never considered that a date because at the time we were both still hung up on our ex's and spent the whole time at lunch talking about them. The summer we started dating, we spent tons of time together. I consider the Fourth of July as our first official 'date'. That's when we both knew we wanted to be together.

4- where was your first kiss?
He's probably going to kill me, but I don't exactly remember. I know we first held hands the night after the 4th while we were on a walk. ( I think it was in our apartment complex lounge while we were watching a movie. It's all running together now. Is it bad to not remember that?)

5- How long did you date for?
We started dating at the beginning of July, got engaged in November, and were married in February.

6- where did you get engaged?
It was during my intern year at Park View and I was there a ton and Kyle usually came to support me so I didn't have to be there by myself. Well on the 15th of November, his mom calls me and says that his sister has a project to do on rocks and she didn't go to the library before it closed so she wanted to know if I could go grab some books from my classroom. It's funny because I totally thought it was legit and on the drive down to Payson, I asked Kyle if he had my dad's phone number so he could call him (little did I know that he already had). So we pull up in front of the school and I get out all ready to go up the stairs and he stops and drops to his knees. Then he asks me to marry him and we see his family across the street hiding behind trees where they are taping it and singing "Kiss the Girl" from the Little Mermaid.

7- when and where were you married?
We got married in the Mount Timpanogos temple on February 17, 2007

8- how did the reception go?
It went really well. We moved the wedding up early so the reception stayed on the original wedding date. It was nice to be laid back. By then, I was already pregnant so we had to have my mom let my dress out so I could still wear it.

9- how was the honeymoon?
It was really nice. We spent a few days up in Park City (i couldn't go too far with school). It was beautiful and quiet. The only bad thing about the honeymoon was that Kyle got super sick the day we left to come home. We had to stop a few times to let him throw up on the side of the road. Then he gave it to me.

10. I tag Chelle, RaeAnna, Missie, Meshelle, Kate

Thanksgiving Point

We love Thanksgiving Point. It has become a haven for us to go and get away from the world. We have been to the Gardens a few times, the Dinosaur Museum, and the Animal Farm. Our favorite place is the waterfall. Gabbie loves to sit and watch all the different falls. There is definitely a feeling of peace here and it makes us feel closer to our Heavenly Father. It also makes us to be grateful for the beautiful earth He has given us.

The view standing across from the falls is amazing. We like to just sit, watch, and ponder on the events going on in our lives.

A beautiful view looking down from the top of one of our favorite gardens that is created to look like an ancient Greek city.

(Our favorite garden, courtesy of thanksgivingpoint.com)
Gabs and Daddy posing for some pictures...

Gabbie watching the water foam before it goes under the bridge to the fall...

Looking down at three of the falls...

Another favorite part of Thanksgiving Point is the animal farm. There are a ton of animals that you get to go visit with. They are used to being fed by people so they come right up to the bars and try to get some food from you. This little animal (I can't remember what it was but I think it was a lamb) wanted us to give it some food but we didn't have any. Gabbie sure did enjoy it coming so close though.

The cool thing about the animals is that you get a ticket for a horse or carriage ride with each person that purchases a ticket. Gabbie took Daddy's ticket and went for her first horse ride. She did not think it was too much fun at first. She was scared and instead of sitting up straight, she sprawled out across the horse to make herself feel safer.

The only time she really smiled was when she was on the opposite side of Mom and a bunch of ladies kept telling saying that she was soo cute. Anytime someone says that, she gets super excited and smiles at them as if to say "Yeah I know I'm cute!"

We love Thanksgiving Point. Because we are members, anyone that goes with us gets in for half off so let me know if you want to go with us the next time we go.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

BYU football season has begun. We were lucky enough this year to have the money saved up to purchase All Sports Passes. Last year we were too late and didn't get tickets to every game so we were super excited. We got all dressed up in the blue colors of our team and were ready to go to the game. First was a stop at Grandma Christensen's. She took some pictures for us so we could document the event.

Here we all are dressed up and ready to go to the first game of the season verse Northern Iowa.

Gabbie dressed up in her BYU shirt and super cute hair bow.

Mom and Gabbie playing before we left for Provo.

Gabs with her Daddy, who can't wait for her to get into the joys of football.

Sitting in our totally awesome seats, 5 rows from the north end zone, waiting for the game to start. Gabbie looked like she got burned really badly but her face is like Mom's in that it turns red when she is hot. Luckily, we have brought tons of sunblock and reapplied it numerous times during all the games.

Gabbie is already becoming a football fan. She loves to move to the music that the band plays during the game and after all the fans in the stadium stop screaming, she joins in and lets everyone know that she is there too. Her cuteness has earned some friends too; there is a young family that sits beside us who have this super cool water spraying thing that they let her use. She loves it! Kyle finally gets to raise his little girl to be a true blue fan.

Nine Month Update

Gabbie had her nine months check up today with Doctor Peterson. He walked in the room and looked and her and said 'Wow, I didn't even recognize her at first. She has a lot of hair, she didn't have that much when we I last saw her.'

Here are her stats for everything:


Length: 30 inches
Weight: 21 pounds


She's a really big girl and is doing great. We are amazed at how much she is growing every day. She keeps getting bigger and bigger. We sometimes look at her and wonder what ever happened to our little girl. Each day is a new adventure with her and she definitely keeps us on our toes. She has to be watched always or she will be into something in no time at all.

Since starting this blog, Gabbie has had two teeth break through her gums. They are her bottom two middle ones and she loves rubbing her tongue across them. She is doing remarkably well with them. There has been hardly any crying or fussing. She has had a runny nose and a headache but has been very easy going and well tempered. We love this little girl!

Our Family Picture Shoot

We were so impressed, when we were in Cleveland, with how beautiful the scenery was at the metroparks. After we visited Squire's Castle in the evening with Chelle, we decided that we would go back and take some family pictures there the next day when we could get dressed up and the light would be better. We are soooo happy with how the pictures turned out.

So impressed, in fact, that we can't decide which of them to put on our wall. For this, we are asking you (yeah you, the one behind the monitor clicking the mouse right now) to help us. What we want is for you to tell us which pictures you like best. Basically, we will number the following pictures, and we want you to click on the "comments" link at the bottom of this post and vote for your two favorite family poses, and your two favorite Gabbie alone poses.

(we've also posted a few collages of some of the pictures that didn't make the cut (or didn't fit the categorizations))

Family Picture #1

Family Picture #2

Family Picture #3

Family Picture #4

Family Picture #5

Family Picture #6

Family Picture #7

Family Picture #8

Family Picture #9

Family Picture #10

Family Picture #11

Family Picture #12

Gabbie Alone #1

Gabbie Alone #2

Gabbie Alone #3

Gabbie Alone #4

Gabbie Alone #5

Gabbie Alone #6

Gabbie Alone #7

Gabbie Alone #8

Okay, that's it for voting!
(don't forget to vote again in November (I know I'm Cheesy, but, as many of you know, Christy and I are pretty big supporters of Barack Obama))

Here are the other Pictures:

Fun at the Wildes

Our next stop, after visiting Christy's sister in Virginia, was to go and visit Kyle's sister Chelle (some of you may know her as Rochelle) her family in Ohio.

Here are some great group shots where you can see pretty much everyone in her family:

One of the best parts of our trip, both in Virginia and Ohio, was to watch how Gabbie interacted with all of her cousins. Her cousin that is closest to her in age is Chelle's youngest son Graham, and he and Gabbie became the best of friends right off the bat. We got some of the cutest pictures with the two of them while we were there:

Another thing that we got to do while we were there was to go and visit some of the great sites around Cleveland where the Wildes live.

The first place that we were able to visit was the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. This place was pretty cool, cause not only did it have displays of dinosaur bones and gems and rocks and stuff, but it also had a Discovery Room (where kids could do hands on stuff) and an outdoor section where live animals could be visited. Chelle's kids favorite part of the Museum was Lucy the Otter. Gabbie mostly liked the dinosaur bones and Gems the most.

While we were at Chelle's Lincoln, Chelle's oldest boy, had his fifth birthday. For his birthday party he wanted to have some friends over to make a Star Wars movie. Kyle was nominated to play Darth Vader in the movie, and it actually turned out really cool (a couple of Chelle and Jeremy's friends had some pretty sweet costumes.)

Another fun part of the trip was being able to visit the Cleveland Zoo:

The Cleveland Zoo is really cool because it is broken up into two parts: an outdoor portion and an indoor portion. The indoor portion is called "The Rainforest." I think that we liked the rainforest part the very best.

Gabbie (not to mention Mom and Dad) seemed to have tons of fun (as usual) at the zoo.

We've developed this new tradition whenever we go to a zoo of determining which animal at the zoo was Gabbie's favorite. Both of the last two times we have gone we have had a hard time deciding between the monkeys and the tiger/leopard. This time, because we were on vacation (and we noticed that this zoo's gift shop was fairly reasonably priced), we decided that we would buy Gabs a stuffed animal representative of her favorite.

Since Christy and I couldn't tell very well whether she liked the monkeys or tigers, when we got to the gift shop we picked out two cute little stuffed animals: one cheetah (that looked like the leopard at the Hogle Zoo) and one Gorilla (it was pretty cute, you should've seen it). We decided we would hold both out in front of Gabs and let her decide (by reaching for the one that she wanted) what was her favorite.

The resulting scene was hilarious: She gave both animals a quick look, then lunged, almost falling out of the stroller she was buckled into, for the Cheetah. There was no doubt which animal was Gabbie's favorite.

Since that time she has taken Whiskers (the cheetah) everywhere she goes.

The last day that we were at the Wildes we got to visit one of the famous Cleveland Area Metroparks (see Chelle's blog). The experience didn't disappoint.

Not only was the scenery extremely beautiful, but there was a castle there that was awesome to look at (see upcoming post).

Thanks Wilde Family! We had a blast!