Evan is One!

My tiny baby Evan is no longer a tiny baby. He is a walking, baby talking, full of personality, one-year-old. It seriously seems like yesterday that we were bringing our tiny 6 lbs baby boy home from the hospital. He has added so much joy to our family, and it's impossible to remember what life was like before he joined us. Evan is a fireball of personality. He is feisty, but also so sweet and gentle, and he definitely holds his own with Curtis (although most of the time Curtis is a super sweet brother). Evan is such a loving boy, and we are so blessed to have him with us. 

May 2013

More pictures below....

Picture Update

Life lately...

(Oldest to Newest)

Merry Christmas 2013

Our Home Makeover

When we first walked into our house, this is what we saw...

LOTS of tan walls, extremely nasty carpet, and it smelled like animal feces. 

Pleasant, yes? 

Check out THESE before pictures. 

Luckily we were able to see the potential of this house, and the amazing price certainly didn't hurt. 

The layout, location, size, and price of the place sold us immediately! 

We had a thorough home inspection and meth test (to check on the smell)

and everything checked out without any extreme problems.

I wrote about the whole house-hunting experience HERE  and HERE.

We started working on the house the day we got the keys, 

and spent the next several weeks working day and night. 

And we did it!

Thanks to an immense amount of help from family and friends 

we reached our goal in time for little Evan to join our family. 

Here's a sneak peak....

View all the Before and Progress pictures

HERE 

and more pictures HERE

Evan Mark Kitto

He's Here!

Evan Mark Kitto

May 9th, 2013

5 lbs 9 oz
17" long
Born 5:04pm

Feeling very blessed to have this angel boy here! 

iPhone Photos

Life lately....

Fall 2012

Fall this year was unusually warm, which was nice for a while, but eventually made me ache for cooler temperatures. As for the comings and goings of September through November, Mike worked a lot, and I taught my BYU classes and spent lots of time at home with Curtis. Halloween was a lot of fun this year. I "feared" that Curtis wouldn't let us put a costume on him, as he was completely against it until we bribed him with lots of treats. Still not sure why I even cared that much, because honestly I don't even like Halloween very much (although you'd probably never guess it from the following pictures).  We decided, for at least this year, to keep a family theme. We went with an Oriental theme: Curtis was a ninja, I was an Asian lady, and Mike was a panda bear. We are the best at procrastinating, and came up with the costumes the day before Halloween.

We also visited Hee Haw Farms towards the end of October. Unfortunately it was close to nap time and we ended up leaving early with our tired, grumpy boy. But hey, it was still worth it. 

Thanksgiving was spent in Texas with my dad and Steph. We originally planned to have all the siblings come down, but unfortunate circumstances kept Jesse and Alysha, and Chris and Tregani from being able to go. We still had a great time, and I'm glad we were able to go. On the way down I drove with Michael, Eliza, Mark, and Curtis. We stopped for the night in La Veta, CO and stayed with our Aunt Lisa. We drove the rest of the way the next morning. Mike flew down on Thursday morning and was there for the rest of the weekend. It was great to see family and spend the weekend with them. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at The Big Texan--and it ended up being a really good traditional meal. After a few days of visiting we all drove the 16 hours home on Sunday. 

Now some picture history...

Atlantic Beach, North Carolina

Last month we took a 10 day trip to North Carolina; my mom's home state.  We lived there for the 1997-1998 school year, and I love going back to visit. It was so fun to have Mike with me, and have him visit NC for the first time.

We had a wonderful trip! It was great to be with family, and the beach was beautiful. We rented an ocean front home and an ocean view home right across the street (since there were 24 of us). All of the adult children + spouses, except for Phil and Sarah, were in one house, and everyone else was in the other. Phil and Sarah had a cute little "honeymoon suite" detached apartment. 

I loved being there with my family. It's not easy, or cheap, to fly 17 people across the country, and I'm sure it will be a few more years before we do anything like this again. It was also special to be there with Braden before he left on his mission to Poland. 

Uncharacteristically, I took zero pictures. None. We still don't have a camera worth taking pictures with, and when you're on a trip with that many people, there are bound to be pictures taken. Luckily there were some great pictures taken, although I am sad that we didn't take more of the things we did together as our little family of 3. 

Now I will probably sound like the worst person ever, but I definitely had my eyes open to the fact that there really isn't such a thing as "vacation" when you have young children. We had a wonderful time, but it was anything but relaxing. It was hard to travel with Curtis, hard to juggle nap time, hard to have time to chill, and definitely no opportunity to just relax on the beach. Being the only one with a child was hard. I tried my best not to feel left out of things, but it's just inevitable when no one else has kids to worry about, so they can do pretty much whatever they want, whenever they want. You just can't do that with kids. So, next time we go on a family vacation, someone else dang well better have some kids. That or we're bringing a paid nanny with us :). 

But even though it was hard with a two-year-old, we still had a fantastic time, and I miss it! I love the East, especially NC, and I'd live there in a heartbeat if we could. 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week. 

Thank you to my mom, my brother Michael, and my sis-in-law Tregani for the photos!

LOTS MORE...

iPhone Photos

Our life, lately. . . 

The Graduate

He did it!

Mike is officially UVU Alumni!

I'm so proud of the hard work he has put in over the past few years,

he has had the hard task of working and attending school full-time.

That is not an easy task.

I love you, Mike!

(here are a few pics of the big day)

The day I borrowed a nice camera and took 100 pictures of my son

On Saturday evening we had a fun get-together at a local park with some of the young couples in our neighborhood. My sister-in-law let me borrow her camera so I could (try) to take a few good pictures of Curtis. I spent most of our time there following him around, trying to get him to smile. IT WAS HARD! There were so many kids around and so many distractions. 

Luckily I got a few good ones that made it all worth it. 

A Few Easter Photos

Thanks to my sister-in-law Tregani for taking these pictures!

We have a lot more of Curtis (of course) to come! 

iPhone Photos

Our life, lately...



(you'll also notice that I discovered the jump break, so be sure to click the read more link.)

Eighteen Months

On January 22nd my baby boy turned 18 months. As strange as it sounds (and maybe it doesn't), I can hardly remember Curtis as a little baby. Of course I remember certain things, but it's hard to remember him as a motion-less, basically non-expressive, tiny baby. His personality is so much more apparent now. And boy do I love him!

Curtis' 18 month old stats are: Weight-25 lbs (36%), Head-18.75" (43%), Height-33" (66%)

Curtis is a very busy 18 month old. He is always looking, moving, talking, pointing, grabbing, poking, eating, and constantly learning. His gross motor skills are excellent, and he seems to be above average in his physical abilities. He can run, climb stairs (almost standing up without help), balance on small objects, do somersaults, spin quickly, climb almost anything (except his crib, luckily), and perform fairly complex tasks with his arms and hands. This makes for a very active and busy day around our home. Seeing as we have a very little apartment, and it's cold outside, I will often take him to my parents' house just so he can run around and play in a larger space. One thing is for sure....Curtis is most definitely a boy!

New Years 2012

Happy New Year! 

2012 is sure to bring many new and exciting experiences! 

We celebrated New Years with some of our really good friends, the Simmons. 

We were also able to meet baby Lydia for the first time! 

We had a great night of visiting, games, good food, and great company. 

Curtis and Lydia meet for the first time! 

Happy New Year 2012!

Christmas 2011

I know I'm weeks behind, but that's okay. 

I knew I'd have to catch up sometime. 
Bear with me as I attempt to remember a few important events!

Christmas was wonderful this year, as it is every year. 

We were especially excited to have a 17-month-old to make celebrating even more fun. 

We always start the Christmas week off by celebrating our anniversary. This year we went up to Salt Lake and stayed in the Little America Hotel. It was the first time I'd spent a night away from Curtis, but fortunately I was able to relax and trust that he was being well taken care of by Mike's parents! We went to dinner, walked around Temple Square, and had a great getaway. The next morning we had breakfast and then did some shopping at Cabella's and Ikea. Unfortunately, I didn't do a good job of taking pictures. I don't think I even took one photo. Woops.

iPhone Photos

Lately...

Photos via Instagram App for iPhone

Family Photos

Last week we took some family photos.

My sister-in-law is a photographer and she was sweet enough to take them for us. 

Even though the odds were against us (weather, light, and Curtis)

Tregani managed to get some great shots. 

Thanks Treg!

Halloween 2011

We had a really fun Halloween this year! 

We decided to have another family party with costumes, prizes, games, and good food. 

We had a really good turn-out (missing only Sarah).

Curtis was definitely a hit in his little Pubert Addams costume (Addams family)

Halloween has always been one of those holidays that I don't really care about at first,

but then it always ends up being really fun.

I think dressing up is actually really enjoyable.

(Even if it is pretty pointless)

Jesse and Alysha

Marisa and Braden

Kristie and Michael

Hannah Chase

Eliza and Max

Tregani and Chris

Curtis, Dence, and Kimmy

Mark

McKenna and Mallory

Chris and Kim

THANKS TO THESE GREAT FOLKS FOR A GREAT HALLOWEEN!