Fairy Princess

I know this is way late, but aren't my posts always late? For Halloween we decided to dress Kaydance up as a fairy princess. My mom bought her this cute tutu and the fairy wings for her birthday a few months ago, so we decided to put them to good use. She made the cutest little fairy! Trevor and I, on the other hand, weren't so enthusiastic about dressing up this year. Maybe when we have kids a little older who will remember dressing up, I will dress up with them.

We only took Kaydance trick-or-treating to "The Grandma's houses" so as to not take up the entire night. But of course, she has 5 that live in Moab. It ended up taking us about 3 hours to complete the rounds. She made out like a banshee, and therefore, I have been eating way too much candy the last few weeks. :(




Getting Ready

Silly Baby

Kaydance is one of those kids who gets really wound up when she gets tired and doesn't want to go to bed. We took this video of her one night when she was being especially crazy. She actually settled down a little when she saw we were recording her.

Growing up

Kaydance is growing up too fast!! We've been horrible at taking pictures of her the past month or so, but we did get some cute ones the other day. Her hair is finally long enough to put in pig tails, and we just can't get over how cute she looks with them :) She is learning all sorts of new things and becoming quite the talker. She loves to play with other kids, and has recently learned to SCREAM AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS if she doesn't get her way or get what she wants. I can handle it okay when we're at home because I don't mind letting her scream for a few seconds until she gets over it, but when we are in public, and especially in church, we have our share of embarrassing moments. Nonetheless, our little girl is growing up and becoming not-so-little anymore.



Just after a bath







And after she ran away from us





J
I know this one is blurry, but I just love this classic Kaydance smile.

Good times and great oldies

Those of you who know me well are aware of the fact that I love oldies music. 50's, 60's, 70's and even some from the 80's. It is real music, real singing, and you can dance to most of it. Good stuff. I also am of the opinion that the majority of today's music is CRAP! Now there are a few exceptions. For example I really like Maroon 5. And every now and then I can enjoy at least one rap song if it has a cool beat. And that is only because it reminds me of high school when, for a brief time, Moab was able to pick up a radio station from Grand Junction that played a lot of rap. Songs like Airforce One, Magic Stick, and The Thong Song were popular at the time. They were played at basketball games and stuff, but on my own time it was all oldies.
So the other day I was messing around on playlist.com listening to music and what not. And I came across a song I thought was pretty cool. It's called Big Shot Pimpin. It is the best of the oldies and some music from my school days. They mixed Big Shot by Billy Joel and Big Pimpin by Jay-Z. It's kind of cool. If you're interested go check it out. Go to playlist.com, on the home page under featured playlists click on the one called made by you. Its track 20. Enjoy the blend.

Happy Birthday Kaydance!

I can not believe that Kaydance is already one year old. It has gone by so fast, but we have loved every minute of it. We had a family birthday party for her and she loved being the center of attention and getting thoroughly spoiled. I made a special little cake for Kaydance to just dig in to, but she wasn't interested in the least; she just cried and whined when we tried to get her to eat any.



Other than that, our lives have been pretty uneventful. We have had a couple of major rain storms, and because a portion of our yard is just sand, we have had one giant mud puddle outside our garage door. We thought Kaydance would like to go out and play in it; she loves being outside and she loves playing in water of any kind. Once she figured out that we wanted her to play in it, she loved it.







We also got to take Kaydance on her first camping trip in July for a family reunion. She actually did better than I expected, and I think she had a pretty good time.







That's all for now.

Work and Play

Our lives have been pretty crazy since I last posted. First of all, we bought a house. It is in Moab, where we always wanted to end up, and we absolutely love it! We closed on it at the end of May and are still trying to get everything unpacked and settled in. Trevor was gone for pretty much the whole month of June for trainings with the ARMY and the school district, so I was left to do most of the cleaning and unpacking.








For our 3 year anniversary, which we celebrated over 4th of July weekend, although it is really June 30, we went to Stadium of Fire in Provo. It was awesome and we had a great time. I have always loved celebrating Independence Day, but I get a different feeling about it being married to a soldier. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it does make me feel a bit more patriotic, I guess.




Trevor is still working for the school district, and I have recently started working at Moab Dental Health Center as a hygienist. I love my job! I'm so glad that I finished school and can now make money cleaning teeth! As for Kaydance, she has mastered the art of walking and is becoming more of a handful every day; but we love every minute of it!





We have been staying busy trying to keep up on all of our responsibilities, but have still found some time to play and be together as a family! We are loving life right now :)

Thanks and gratitude

Here's to me finishing school!!! This was my second time graduating from college, and it feels great to be done. Again. I now have an AS in Community Health and an AAS in Dental Hygiene. I feel so accomplished.... sorta. I mean, 5 years of college to get two associates degrees?

Whatever.

The past nine months have been such a blur, have drug on and on, have been such a trial, and have been some of the best months of my life. Looking back now, I can't believe that I actually did it. Me. I did it. With a brand new baby and no husband; I did it.

But, really, I can't take all the credit. I had so much help from so many people. Here's my condensed list of people to thank:
1. Heavenly Father - for always listening and being there for me, when no one else was
2. My parents/in-laws - for always being willing to watch Kaydance and encourage me. Who knows how many phone calls I made to my mom complaining and on the verge of tears; but ended up being a pep talk that always made me feel better and ready to conquer.
3. My siblings/ siblings- in-law - for always reminding me how smart and strong I was. And for all the calls and emails to check up on me.
4. Janel - for always being willing to babysit a sick Kaydance at the last minute because no one else would take her. And for the many, many dinners, and talks of encouragement.
5. My visiting teachers - for bringing me dinners, and being faithful in coming to see me every month. Knowing that they were always willing to do anything for me made everything seem less daunting.
6. Kaydance - for always keeping me company while Trevor was gone and teaching me better time management skills.

And last, but certainly not least
7. Trevor - for being strong when I wasn't, for providing for our family, for encouraging me to finish, for being proud of me, for loving me, for sharing my sorrows and my joys, and for telling me I could do it, and for letting me.

I'm grateful for the friends I made, I'm grateful for the things I got to experience, I'm grateful for the knowledge I gained, I'm grateful for the self-reliance I learned, but most of all, I'm just grateful to be done!!!