You know it's important that you pick the right guy...

...when the patriarchal blessing you receive at age 15 tells you to pray daily for guidance toward the man that you are supposed to marry and gives warnings about many counterfeits. I had taken that instruction seriously and had offered several thousand such prayers before I met Tyler. I knew almost immediately that this was THE guy. And the way that we met (click to the left for story) left no room for doubt that this was so completely directed from above. I love being married. I love being married to this amazing man who continues to love, honor, serve, and amaze me. Today he sang his first solo in a sacrament meeting and knocked everyone's socks off. Full of surprises. He says that he likes to keep some mystery in our marriage so that I'll stick around. :) I could go on and on, but instead I want to go and romance this wonderful man of mine with candles and fondue since today is our 4th Anniversary! Enjoy looking at our cute mugs.

Merry, indeed!

We had a very Merry Christmas in the Foster home. I hope that yours was just as relaxing, memorable and wonderful. I'm just going to throw some pictures on here with little explanations because my hubby is off for the next week and a half and we're doing some fun projects and spending good time together. He's spackling the laundry room right now so that I can start painting *VERY excited about this - pictures to come later!*

Christmas Eve is my favorite. I love that it's focused on the Savior and service to others. That's the day that we take plates of goodies to neighbors and friends *only neighbors this year since we're mostly snowed in*. Ty went to the grocery store for me in the a.m. (no small feat since we had to use chains on our tires just to get up our hill for the past several days). While he was gone, Max and I played with play-dough and made a Christmas tree that we wanted to take a picture of. Isn't it lovely?And that turned into a little mother and son photo shoot. He was being very funny so I included a lot of the pictures - not so much for you, dear readers, but for me to remember it by. I won't explain why I love each of them since you're not his mom and you won't think it's nearly as cute as I do. Suffice it to say I love, love, love my little man!

In unrelated-to-Christmas news, I finally took pictures of Kelly climbing the stairs - an activity she's enjoyed for a while now, but I'm just capturing. Don't you want to grab & kiss her?! Don't worry, I do it enough for everyone.*Love the view from behind on this little lady*

Then we had a nice dinner *crab legs, shrimp, steak, potatoes, bread, asparagus...and we were joined by our dear friend, Jennifer, whose husband is in the Navy and had duty all night as well as one of her friends who was on her own for the holiday*. It was very enjoyable! After dinner we acted out the nativity story. Ty totally took charge of the costumes and everything. He did a fabulous job. We stole my sister-in-law's idea of acting it out to a primary song (can't think of the name of the song right now). In the middle of it, as we had all taken our places around Jesus and were listening to the song, Max came and knelt in front of Jesus and said, "I want to worship Him." Then he gave Jesus a very tender kiss. Loved it. Here is our cute shepherd and our crazy angel who wouldn't hold still long enough for a picture...or long enough to even keep her pillowcase costume on.

Christmas morning tradition is that Dad goes downstairs first to see if Santa did, indeed, stop at our place. Then he brings up the stockings filled with joy, as well as the letter from Santa. All are, of course, very well received.We waited on the stairs while Dad checked on our haul and got the camera ready...

Max to the Max was THRILLED with his train set. The train mat was a bit of a late order with Santa and is now on a UPS truck in the middle of country, making it's way to our little dude. Good thing Santa works after Christmas to make sure his presents still get where they need to be! He also got a little Fisher Price computer, clothes, a bucket of large G.I. Joe soldiers, a tickle-me Cookie Monster, and too many little things to name. Santa, Tutu & Grandpa Ted AND his parents were really good to him this year. We can't help it, he's too cute.Bo Belly got a ball popper that goes totally crazy and sends the balls flying high into the air. We're a little afraid when it gets going! She seems to love it, though. She also received a fun bath toy, some clothes, a tickle-me-Ernie, snacks and the cutest little coat. I think the coat was really a gift to the momma because it makes my heart happy every time I put it on her. :)

Christmas breakfast - German Pancakes, a tradition we started last year.Such a great holiday! I love it and am sad to see it go. But there are many fun things coming up, so stay tuned.

Hey, Dana, I was wondering...

What happens when you live in a town that sees minimal snowfall and finds itself in the middle of a "historic storm"?  Oh, well, you happen to have asked the perfect person! I live in just such a town.   I'd be happy to share with you exactly what happens.

*View from our front yard...beautiful!*

Church? Cancelled.  You are especially bummed about this because you were SO looking forward to the Christmas program and the way that it really gets you in the mood for Christmas. But when you live in a place that rarely gets snow that sticks, the town cannot justify dumping money into a snow plow/street clearing/salting program, so you're out of luck. And you happen to live at the bottom of a steep hill, so even if the rest of the ward had gone ahead you probably wouldn't have made it up the hill anyway.  Your husband will call it a "Christmas Miracle" :)

That solo your husband was supposed to sing in the Christmas Sacrament Program?  Postponed to next week.  You, however, got to hear him practice yesterday and you know that he's going to totally rock

Furnace? Busted, of course.  The one day you can't get out and you really need some heat. When you wake up it will be 60 degrees in your house, not the 68 you're used to

Gas Fireplace? Finally put to good use and heats the entire house.  You'll even have to turn it off halfway through the day because the house gets too hot.  You'll be very impressed with this rarely used and underappreciated household commodity

Space heater? You will only have one and you'll figure that two would be better for naps and bedtime so that your kids don't freeze and then you'll remember that your neighbors (who are currently in Chile and to whose house you have a key) have one so you'll venture over and in the process of looking for said heater you'll find a leak in their garage and water pooling up.  You'll tell your husband (who is working on the furnace) and he will leave his current project to investigate.  He'll find that the washer upstairs was the source.  You wanted to relax today, Tyler?  No day of rest for the smart fix-it husband.  That's what he gets for being so useful.  What a man.  You'll feel extra grateful for him on this particular day

Activities to keep the fam happy? Books, fun in the family room, hot chocolate in front of the fire to stay warm *"Mom, how about we start a fire and drink hot chocolate by the fire?  How 'bout that?!"* Sledding at the Lewis' will sound like a great idea when you're invited over, but then when your 2-year-old gets snow in his eyes while he's speeding down the hill he will complain and pretend to not like the entire experience. Your nice friend Dave Lewis will offer some goggles and your little man will then find the experience much more pleasant...at least for a little while longer

 

...and you can never go wrong with snowman building, or so you will think.

But then you'll tell your little boy who is cold and hungry that you aren't going inside until the snowman is built.  He'll complain, but once it is finally complete your little boy will loudly cheer and you'll think it's because he's finally caught the excitement of the snowman, but he'll ruin that thought by following his loud cheers with, "Now we can go inside!!!"

...of course you'll have to swig a little 'nog'.

 

"Mom, I have a egg nog mustache"..."Now I'll lick it off...mmm" 

Tomorrow?  You'll have to wait for your husband to call in the a.m. to see if the base where he works is closed.  While you would love for your husband to stay home, you will hope for the snow to start melting sometime during the day so that you can get parts to fix your darn furnace!

Aunt Flo, get lost!

*This may be an inappropriate post since my father-in-law reads this, but I just have to complain.*

No 'cycle' for 9 months after Kelly's born...super nice.

Getting one every two weeks (4 x's in 8 weeks) thereafter, complete with severe cramps each time....not nice.

Grrrr! I'm going to go eat something sweet.

S-C-H-O-O-L

I am a Ricks College non-grad. I went to Ricks for two years. I loved, loved, loved it. I, however, did not have a whole lot of direction in my mind as far as graduating or knowing what in the world I was doing. I signed up for classes and I went to classes and I got decent grades in my classes (mostly). However, after two years I was shy of meeting the criteria for graduation and I just left when everyone else was leaving. I have looked back on my decisions during that time with a lot of frustration and confusion. Why didn't I graduate?! What was I thinking?! It's always been a source of shame for me. I'm a really capable person who accomplishes a lot of things in life, but I've always felt a little "less-than" about not graduating.

I went home and worked for a while. I was kind of "waiting" for a missionary and for a while thought that marrying him would be my next big step. Then I decided to serve a mission (before he got home...not because it didn't work out, although it didn't work out either). Best year and a half of my life! I came home and went back to work. Then I almost moved to Provo, but didn't. I was really involved in my single's ward and dating and working for the next year. Then that fall (2004) I decided to enroll in some classes. I was super disappointed to find out that out of my 42 credits from Ricks only 16 would transfer. Lame. Just a week or so into school was fast Sunday. It was a normal fast Sunday and I didn't have anything particular in mind to fast about, but at the close of my fast I had a VERY strong impression that I needed to drop my classes. What?! I had no idea why and I struggled with it for a few days, but decided that I couldn't deny what I'd felt and I dropped the classes. About a week or two later I broke off a somewhat serious relationship. A few weeks after that I met Tyler and a few weeks after that I picked up and moved to Provo to be close to him (he was just a month shy of finishing his thesis for his masters degree, so he couldn't be the one to move) and he proposed the night after we moved my things to Orem. Heavenly Father knew what was coming...if I'd been in school I wouldn't have been able to move to Provo and have that very important time with Tyler before we were married 7 weeks later.

It's always been in the plans for me to go back to school. I want to finish my degree. My goal is to eventually get a masters degree and become a clinical social worker to work as a therapist for foster children...or some type of therapist. But there was the lameness with hardly any of my credits transferring and that has always frustrated me. So a year and a half ago I contacted BYU-Provo to see if a former Ricks student could do the online continuing education program. No such luck. HOWEVER, they told me that BYU-Idaho was working to get the same program off of the ground for former Ricks students. I put my name on the list and that was as far as things progressed for a while. Finally, in October of this year I received an e-mail saying that they were starting a pilot program in Winter 2009 and would be accepting 40 people to participate. I filled out my application, got my ecclesiastical endorsement (my Bishop joked with me about the importance of dressing modestly when I sit in front of the computer for my classes) and submitted everything just before Thanksgiving. Well...I was accepted and I start in February!!! I know that it is going to take me a long time to finish, but I am just so excited about being back in school. I am anxious for that type of learning environment and I am thrilled to be starting on a goal that I've had for quite some time. So even though my heart belongs to Ricks, my money will now go to BYU-Idaho.

BABE-A-LICIOUS

I'm a little late on this 9-month post since the Kellster is closer to 10...BUT I need to document her stats and share her cuteness with the world. Why should we hog all of the sunshine?!

*Max got all funky with the camera...not sure how, but it looks cool*

STATS:
*18 lbs *28 1/2 inches long*46 cm head circ.*

Kelly is constantly sticking her tongue out (as pictured below). That's just how she rolls...and crawls and climbs the stairs and smiles and talks and gives kisses (I know-we're going to have to talk) and plays and pulls herself up on everything and empties drawers and table-tops and toy bins. Always with the tongue out. You'd think it would make for a very slobbery girl, but she's surprisingly un-slobbery.

Yep, her eyes are still bluer than blue and her eyelashes still reach her eyebrows (mid-eyebrow when her brow is relaxed)...in case you were wondering.

Still just the two teeth on the bottom. But the girl can chomp just
about any food...and does. She's never been the biggest baby food fan, but lately she will ONLY eat what we're having for dinner or lunch or breakfast. Every once in a while we can sneak in some Beech Nut Sweet Corn (a longtime fave) or some type of fruit, but I think we're moving on to bigger and better things. Isn't it way too early for that?




I included all of the pictures below because when I downloaded and looked at them I thought, "Holy cow, these are totally the three faces of Kelly." There are a few more looks she gives all the time, but these three kind of captured my little woman for me. The first is the look she gives just before she does something she's not supposed to or is going to break out in a grin. The second, the tongue again. Love that full-body smile in the last picture. I hope she never loses it. Seriously, with the eyes...can you believe them?! The bigger you view the picture, the bluer they look.

We're so in love, Bo Belly!