Welcome Home, Elder Andrews!

On December 17th, 2008, my little brother, Derek left for the Quetzaltenango Guatemala Mission (actually the MTC in Provo... but that's where he got to eventually...) Exactly 2 years later, he returned from his mission (where he actually ended serving in the new Rhetaluleu Guatemala mission), and got home just in time for Christmas! It was fun to see him come down the stairs at the airport, and be able to welcome him home! We didn't get that great of pictures that night, because there were so many people. (Besides our family welcoming Derek home, I think there were like 4 other missionaries just on his flight, so there were other families there, too.) Derek gave a great talk in sacrament meeting the day after Christmas. We have also enjoyed other things with him, and James has been able to talk to him a little bit about Guatemala, which I think was neat for him. (James served in the Guatemala City South mission, so he could relate a little bit to him.) Derek is next younger than me, so we were pretty close. We're excited for him to start his next adventures in life-- including starting school up at BYU-I in a couple days!

You can't see it that well, but if you look close, you'll see the anticipation and excitement that my mom had! :) I can't remember if this was a false alarm or not, but he ended up not getting in until like 10:30 I think... He was supposed to be there at 8:45!

Holding Kiely, and talking to Jamie & her kids!

Compliments...

Last Saturday, I went to my aunt's house to make chocolates with the married girls in the family on my mom's side. (That's much easier to say than explaining who it all was...) It was a long day, but fun, and we all went home with around 3 pounds of chocolates, I think. (Mmmm!) Anyways, while I was there, DaNae told me how I never update my blog. (I thought I had been doing pretty good compared to how it was when I was in school...) SO, this one's for you, Nae! :) I don't have pictures to add, but at least it's a post!

Today my visiting teaching partner took me to lunch. We went to El Mirador's-- a Mexican restaurant here in Blackfoot. It was pretty good. We both got shredded beef burritos, which were good, but Lisa said they weren't as good as the dinner ones. Kiely was giving her cheesy little grin to everyone that looked at her, including every time Lisa looked at her. It was pretty cute. I had a good time, and Kiely did, too. She really liked the chips, and dipping them in the re-fried beans. (She also enjoyed dipping her fingers in the beans, and made a pretty good mess!) The waitress thought she was so cute, and gave her a little treat. Kiely would have stayed with her if I would have let her! After we were done with lunch, I had some things to get at Wal Mart, so off we went.

While we were at Wal Mart, Kiely was getting tired, and wanted to go where she wanted to go, didn't want to stay in the cart, etc... I don't really love it when this happens. BUT, my solution is usually this: I put her down, and she helps me push the cart (she holds on to the bottom shelf thing to push it.) I have to admit, I think it's pretty cute! People usually say things like, "Oh, that's cute!" or "She's so cute/sweet!" Today was probably a record of compliments for her, and I have to tell my favorite one. We were walking down an aisle, and this grandma lady said, "Hey, stop. I need to see that little girl! She is the cutest thing I've ever seen!" (Something like that...) All this time, Kiely continued to push, and I'm not sure she even turned to give the lady a cheesy grin. I said, "Sorry! She wants to keep on going! She must have somewhere to go!" I then said thanks, and continued on my way, while the lady (I'm pretty sure) was still adoring my little Bug. I'm always happy when I get these compliments, because they make up for the times when Kiely is screaming, and people are staring, probably wondering if I did something I shouldn't to her; but in reality, she's just tired. One of these screaming times, I even noticed that a lady had left her cart, and walked back away from it about 10 feet closer to me to see what was going on.... And that is why I enjoyed that cute little moment today!

Sorry I don't have any pictures. I'll have to get one sometime of her pushing the cart, because it really is quite adorable! :)

Brownies a la Mode!... YUM!

Or maybe not so much... James and I were enjoying some delicious brownies with cherry bordeaux ice cream last night, which was something I had been looking forward to-- it just had sounded so delicious! I had been enjoying this Betty Crocker Brownie--a treat that I had grown up with-- with my cherry bordeaux ice cream, and I bit into a piece of brownie, and felt a umm... strange texture. It felt sort of like a nut, but sort of rubbery-ish, too. (I knew I was chewing on brownie and not ice cream at the time, too.) SO, I take this thing out of my mouth, and with a completely disgusted look on my face, after discovering what it was, and say, "It's a BUG!" James didn't believe me at first, and was like, "Are you sure?" and after I examined it for a minute, I say, "Yes. It has legs... and little hairy-ish looking things on it!" I wanted to throw up. Remember, I grew up eating these brownies. My dad LOVES them... I don't know if I remember my parents buying any other kind. Anyways, I continued examining this little... thing... not even sure what kind of bug it was, and James says, "Maybe it's like a piece of someone's finger or something." I gave him another disgusted, I might throw up look. I knew it was a bug though. SO, after calling my dad and telling him about my disappointment with my find (and Dad said, "That's gross... It's almost hilarious, but gross.") I decided to put the little guy in a ziplock in case-- after I call Betty Crocker and complain about my disgusting find-- I need to send it in to them as proof. James said, "Do you need to get your camera out and document this?" I say, "Hmm... Maybe I should..." So we took the guy and put him back in the bowl to document this sad, gross event. I'll let you know what happens after I contact Betty Crocker. Here are the pictures for now...

Yep. That little guy above and to the left of my spoon was IN MY MOUTH! YUCK! I'm just glad I didn't crunch THROUGH him!

Closer... see the distinction between body and head?

Another view. You can kind of see his leg-ish things in this one.

Closeup of Mr. Bug by himself. You will clearly see that it IS a bug. (You may or may not have to click on the picture so you can see it bigger...) Don't know what kind, but a bug no less. YUCK! I think it's going to be a while before I can bring myself to buy Betty Crocker Brownies again!

Daddy's Shoes

Kiely LOVES shoes. She will get in our closet and try our shoes on, or just bring my shoes to me for me to put on. Usually she'll bring the red ones. :) A few weeks ago, I caught her walking (or trying to walk) around with James' slippers on. It was pretty cute. She had done this before with both mine and James' shoes, but I'd never gotten any pictures. This time, I did the best I could... some ended up pretty blurry, because this girl won't hold still for just about anything! But I thought she looked so cute wearing her daddy's shoes! :)

The best smile she'd give me.

If she can move in them, that's all that matters. Even if they are on backwards!

Now she's got it right! Ready....

Downhill skiing in dad's shoes!... Turning...

This is some serious stuff!

BREAK! Done.

Okay, so maybe she wasn't really thinking skiing, but that's what it looked like to me! I love this girl! She's pretty funny, and SO cute!

Cherish the Small Moments...

Kiely hasn't been feeling very well the past couple days. She has a cold-- runny nose, gunk in her throat, fever sometimes, etc. This morning I could tell she was still tired. (She usually takes a nap after James leaves for work anyways, but she seemed more tired.) Most of the time, she just gets fussy, and that's when I put her in her bed, and no more than 15 minutes later, she's usually asleep. This time, though, I decided to cherish the moment. Rather than just putting her in bed, I wrapped her in her soft blanket, and rocked her in my rocking chair. As I was rocking her, I could tell she was thoroughly enjoying it. And sometimes, she would get this little smile on her face... The kind they get when they're newborns that everyone tells you that they just have gas or something... But I know she didn't have gas. (Believe me, I know when she does now.) It was the sweetest thing, and I loved those few minutes I took to just take care of her. I thought about the talk by Elder Oaks on Good, Better,Best, and felt like at that time, I was doing the best thing. I love our little sweet Kiely Bug.

This isn't from today, but I love this picture of her with her little bum sticking in the air!

Halloween

Well, at least here's the pumpkin for now! (We only took pictures of Kiely with my phone, and I don't know where the cord is to put the pictures on the computer, so I'll have to wait till James gets home, because he probably knows where it's at.) We had fun carving our pumpkin, and even let Kiely in on gutting it! :) I think she had fun... was a little hesitant, I think, but enjoyed it. I carved the bat on the back, and James carved the face in the front. James had a blast taking pictures of it in the dark, glowing... I was just trying to keep Kiely out of the way! We had a good Halloween. We just went to our ward's trunk-or-treat (which was almost over by the time we got there, but it was just right) and then came home and watched Van Helsing.

Gutting it...

We're still not sure what it means when she crosses her fingers, but it's kinda cute!

Getting the gunk off!

James decided to put some seeds all over Kiely's back. I like him. He makes me laugh! :)

Posing for mom! Look at the seeds hanging off of her!

Pretty much finished! The flowers are from Sweetest Day. Yes, it's an actual day that is celebrated on the third Saturday in October! Google it. I didn't believe it when James came home with these and some Dove chocolates!

The bat is carved on the back, and James got just the right angle to make it look like it's flying out of the pumpkin!

That's all for now... I'll get pictures up of Kiely in her Princess Dress when I can!

Yellowstone National Park

On the 23rd of October, James, Kiely, and I set out for an adventure to Yellowstone! :) We had a lot of fun... and a lot of time in the car. (Which, who really enjoys car rides for that long?... Definitely NOT Kiely!) Kiely got kind of cranky sometimes-like when she was hungry or just sick of sitting in the car. She loves to stay busy, and sitting down for many minutes-- or hours-- at a time is not her thing. She was a trooper, though, and almost every time we got out to go see something, we let her walk. It was SO cute! Sometimes she wouldn't even let us hold her hand. She just wanted to be a big girl. When we stopped to eat lunch, there was a crow close by, so James fed it some of his bread or chips or something... crows a re pretty smart! James would play games with it, and it wouldn't go get the food until James wasn't looking. Haha. For over half of the trip, we didn't see any animals (besides an occasional buffalo, but they always seem to be everywhere, so they aren't very exciting to me. Oh, and the of crows...) Eventually we did see some Elk, and that was about it... But the scenery was beautiful, and we enjoyed being together as a family! We didn't get home till I think 11 or something, so we were all exhausted, after a long, fun day! Enjoy the pictures! :)

Happy as can be- on our way!

Climbing the stairs! (She could do this all day and never get sick of it!)

The earth IS alive, and ACTIVE!

Beautiful colors of the earth.

My sweet man and baby girl (who isn't much of a baby anymore!)

James called the ones we got here Halloween pictures, because of the steam. :)

Our Happy Little Family! (Okay, maybe Kiely doesn't look so happy-- she'd just woken up.)

First Elk we saw. She stood and posed for me! :)

?? Can't remember where this was... one of the pretty waterfalls!

A buffalo!

James was saying how he really wanted to see a Bull Elk... This is one of two that we saw, and he seemed almost tame. Just chillin' on the lawn.

Second Bull Elk with all his ladies.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone! So pretty!

Waterfall by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Me and Kiely and Yellowstone's Grand Canyon

Tired and all pooped out and ready to be at home in bed! (Yes, this is her pooping face! Haha! We think it's HILARIOUS!!)