THE HICKEN COOP!

Parker's new born pictures!

2011-08-01T14:19:00.003-06:00

My friend Danielle, so kindly, took these adorable photos of Parker. I love them all. Eventually I will get around to sending out birth announcements.

Blog Overload! New baby!

2011-08-01T13:12:00.006-06:00

What's new? One day I will be great at keeping a blog, that day just might not be for 10 more years. Here is what we have been up to in the past few months. Mostly pictures. Enjoy....

Here is our garden when it looked beautiful... before the birds ate our strawberries and the chipmunks decided to eat the rest. (cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes.) We even put a net up and they ate a hole in it. Plus, it has been really hot and the plants are not doing so well anymore. Maybe we will have better luck next year.

On May 13th, Donny and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. We went to Medieval times dinner and tournament.

We were cheering for the red knight. We ate our food with our hands and everything. It was a lot of fun.

Of course, we had to bring Tyler home a crown.

One of my best friends, Holly, stopped at our house for the night on their way to Florida for the summer. He husband J'Dee got a summer internship in Clear water. It was fun to visit with her and see her cute dog Marley. She will be coming again in a few weeks. I can't wait. Except this time she will be the one that looks pregnant... not me. :)

My wonderful friends in Georgia through me a baby shower. It was great fun.

(Brenna and Amber)

(Dianne, Rebecca, and Amy)

(Lisa and Donna)

(me, Tyler, Laura, Carter, and Cheryl)

(Most of the ladies. The young women were there as well they hosted it for activity night.)

(Cute Amy!!)

Oh and we had a baby!!!!

Parker Matthew Hicken

7lbs 14oz

19 inches

Born May 25th, 2011

I love this face... He looks like my brother Matthew in it.

Proud big brother!

Ready to go home!

My boys!! I love them!

We had the boys exchange gifts. Parker gave Tyler some tools.

Tyler picked out this adorable Alligator for Parker. We named him Spinach!

Tyler's silly faces!

2011-05-02T13:16:00.003-06:00

Tyler LOVES to look at himself and make faces. I often find him in the bathroom pulling faces at himself in the mirror. He recently found out that he can also do this in front of the camera. Here is what I am talking about:

Did I mention he thinks he is HILARIOUS?!!

Braves game!

2011-05-02T12:26:00.004-06:00

Donny has been wanting to go see the Atlanta Braves play for a while now. We finally did it. We had a great time. We had cheap seats but they worked for us. And you can't go to a baseball game with out getting a hot dog for dinner right? SO we did that, too. Here are some pictures of our night out.

A great view of down town Atlanta!

Tyler complained that is was loud and he looked like this most of the game.

About the 6th inning we got a little restless and decided to walk around the stadium.

The big drum!

Our family on a giant coke bottle bench.

Tyler was a big fan of the Braves.

Donny and Tyler in front of the Giant coke bottle! (the cow in the back ground also does the tomahawk chop.)

After the game some random guy was mowing the lawn with a push mower. We thought this was so strange. Anyone know why he would be doing this?

We ended the night with a great firework show that they do at every Friday night game. Although the Braves lost we really didn't care it was a fun family activity. I think we might go again sometime.

Since the Braves are Indians they have a cheer that everyone does called the tomahawk chop. This was Tyler's most favorite part. Here is a video of him doing it.

Killer Tornadoes!!

2011-04-28T13:58:00.003-06:00

All day yesterday and last night the South had some crazy storms. Over 100 tornadoes were reported and hundreds dead. We didn't know where the storms were headed so we stayed up most the night watching the news. Luckily, no tornadoes came near us. We had some wind and thunderstorms but this was the most of the damage below. This is out next door neighbor's tree. Just one branch fell over. Thankfully it didn't hit any cars either.

Watch this video of some of the coverage that was caught on tape. Pretty crazy huh? I'm very thankful that we were not in any harm. My prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones, and homes. I didn't realize the weather in the south got so wild.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-26T17:52:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful Easter this year. The Easter bunny comes to our house on Friday night, so we can celebrate all the Easter festivities on Saturday and be able to focus on the real meaning of Easter on Sunday. My family has always done this, so we decided to carry the tradition over to ours.

So, Saturday morning Tyler woke up and found his basket. For some reason I didn't get a picture with him and all his goods. Here are his 2 gifts the Easter Bunny brought him.

This one is a tee-ball bat, ball and stand.

and a crazy Mr. Potato Head! He came with multiple pieces, this is the first one Ty put together.

Then we colored some eggs!

He was very proud of them all.

I attempted making some "dinosaur eggs". I got the idea here. I think they turned out cute. Although, i left them out over night so we ended up just throwing them away.

Here is Tyler trying out his Tee-ball. He thinks it is pretty great.

Our neighbor, Joyce, invited us over for Easter dinner. She also set up an "egg hunt" for Tyler. There were no eggs, just toys, puzzle, sidewalk chalk etc. She hid them all around her yard and Tyler had a blast finding them. This is the only photo we got because our camera ran out of batteries.

Donny's work put on a little Easter party for the employees and their families. It was full of fun activities for the kids. Our little Tyler HATES large crowds so this is what we got. After coaxing him to get into the bounce house... he just sat at the edge. Poor guy is so shy.

He really wanted to meet the Easter Bunny but would not let go of Donny's hand for the life of him.

They had an Egg hunt but the parents were not allowed to help the kids. Tyler stayed at one little corner and luckily they had enough goodies that he was able to fill his basket pretty full. He was really excited. Probably not so much after I took away his candy because all it consisted of was bubble gum and fireballs. What 3 year old is gonna eat that?

Over-all we had a great weekend. We did focus on Christ on Sunday. Tyler is very concerned that people hurt Jesus and he died. We tried to focus on him being resurrected but he still can't understand why people would hurt him. "Jesus is nice, they shouldn't do that. Why did they put that poky crown on his head?" This is what he keeps asking us. It's hard to explain these things to a 3 year old. But I am glad that he love his savior. I also love my Savior Jesus Christ and was thankful to reflect on the atonement and resurrection this past weekend.

Atlanta Temple Open House!

2011-04-23T20:07:00.006-06:00

The Atlanta LDS temple has been being remodeled for the past 2 years. They are finished now and the temple will be rededicated on May 1st. For the past 2 weeks they have been having an open house where the public can go and see the inside of the temple. We had a great opportunity to bring our next door neighbor, Joyce, to the temple with us. This was the first time she has seen the inside of an LDS temple and we were excited to share our testimonies with her. We love Joyce, we couldn't ask for a better neighbor. She has made us feel so welcome here in Georgia. She spoils Tyler rotten, she calls him her boyfriend.

They handed out cookies after we walked through the temple. Isn't he a cheeseball? He looked so handsome though.

I love that our family can be together forever.

After the temple, Joyce brought us out to eat at the Marietta Diner. Apparently it's a staple here in Marietta. It was even featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It was really delicious. As you can see, Tyler really enjoyed it!

Atlanta Auto Show

2011-04-22T11:02:00.005-06:00

This was a while ago, but better late than never.

Donny has fond memories of going to the Auto show with his dad when he was young. Ever since we have known each other we have always gone to see it. In Utah the auto show is always in January. We were very sad to miss it this year. But luckily Atlanta had an auto show in March. We couldn't pass it up. This yearly tradition may stick.

It was such a happening event even Iron Man was there. Tyler has no idea who Iron man is but he was still excited to get his picture with him.

Tyler is fascinated with engines lately. When we were buying our van he has to look at each engine before we could drive it. We had a hard time pulling him away from this one. Maybe he will want to fix cars for a hobby like his Grandpa Hicken.

He almost looks old enough to drive.

Tyler also had a great time chasing around the car blimp. He kept saying "Look at the flying car, it looks like a balloon."

My sweet boy.

Taking his first driving lesson.

Cheese!

He's a pro.

Can't wait til next year!

Due to popular demand...

2011-04-11T10:02:00.002-06:00

A belly picture!

I know this is a terrible photo. I didn't know how to turn off the flash on my phone. This is me at 7 months pregnant. I hate the way I look when pregnant so you are lucky you get this much!

I am 32 weeks now. I cannot wait for this little boy to make his debut. Yesterday it hit me that I only have 8 weeks until this little guy will be here and I have not began to prepare. It's a good thing that he's a boy, so he at least has clothes. I plan to make some burp clothes, a blanket, and a car seat tent. We still need to buy a car seat too. Maybe I should pull out all my old baby stuff and see what else I need. Lots to do in 8 weeks.

I know a lot of you are wondering if we have chose a name yet. Then it should not surprise you that we haven't. Probably wont until the day he arrives, just like with Tyler. So I'm sorry. I will let you know if we decide before then.

My Garden!

2011-04-11T09:03:00.006-06:00

This year I really felt like I wanted to start a garden. There isn't anywhere to put a garden on the ground, but we have a large deck and that is now where my garden stands. This is my first attempt at square-foot gardening... or gardening in general. I tend to have a hard time keeping plants alive so I really hope it survives. It looks good so far. Here is how I did it:

First I built a 4x4 foot box out of wood. It's 6 inches high.

The I built my wooden grid and drilled drain holes in each square.

Then we mixed up our soil. 1/3 peet moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost.

Ready to plant. I made a couple extra tall boxes for my carrots and potatoes. (Tyler is blocking his eyes from the sun.)

Tyler is helping me plant some seeds. I could not have done this project with out Tyler and Donny's help.

All planted. We did some by seed and some by plant. We planted peppers, potatoes, cauliflower, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, corn, yellow crooked neck squash, carrots, green beans, cantaloupe, and strawberries. Sounds like a lot but it all fit in this little box.

Except the zucchini. I planted it in it's own pot. Because I didn't want it taking over my whole garden. I am going to try to grow it vertical... on this stick.

And here is it is all finished! Now just to watch it grow! Lets hope I have a green thumb.

Everything I learned about square-foot gardening I learned from squarefootgardening.org. It has a lot of info just on the website. You can also buy a book about it. If my garden fails that will probably be my next step. I'll keep you posted on how it does.

Scissors

2011-04-07T13:44:00.003-06:00

Tyler has recently found a great joy is cutting. Give him some scissors and paper and he will be entertained for quite some time. This first photo is a common scene at our house.

I have told him that he can only cut paper. He does this well. I find small pieces of paper all over my house. But recently I have been finding things like this:

I guess technically this is still paper right?

We might have to have another talk on what we can and cannot cut. :)

First trip to the Zoo 2011

2011-04-07T11:27:00.006-06:00

The weather here in Atlanta area has been beautiful. Tyler and I went to the zoo with my friend Amy and 2 of her girls. We had so much fun. We could have spent all day there but we didn't, just means we will have to go back for more later.

Tyler got to ride on the train and Merry-go-round. He thought the train was loud so this is what he looked like the entire ride.

He loves Giraffes. So of course he picked the giraffe to sit on. It was the only animal that didn't go up and down. But He still had a blast since it was his first time riding on a Merry-go-round. He's waving in the picture, that is why his hand is blurry in front of his face.

They had a small petting zoo in the kids area. Tyler thought it was great. He got to pet some goats, sheep and pigs. The pig kept snorting at him and the girls. It was so funny and made the kids giggle.

We packed our own lunches. Although, Ty thought everyone Else's lunch looked better than his. He kept mooching goods off Amy. Stinker!

This is the momma panda bear. She just had a baby named "Po". He was hiding so I didn't get a photo of him. Maybe next time.

Gorilla!

Another Gorilla family and a little monkey!

The Rhino's and Elephants were the same color as the sand.

Tyler said the giraffes were his favorite but he was overly excited about the Meerkat's. They were so energetic and fun. Here is my little Meerkat.

I know it seems like all the photos are of Tyler lately. That's what you get when I am pregnant. I don't like pregnant pictures of me. Plus, Tyler just looks so cute. Don't worry, you will have another cute little face to look at in 2 months. :)

A beautiful spring weekend!

2011-04-04T13:35:00.004-06:00

I had one of the best weekends in a long time. We didn't do anything to adventurous, but maybe that is what I liked about it. It was fun to spend a weekend at home with my little family. I love them so much.

Saturday we worked out in our yard. My handy husband was able to fix our lawn mower. It has had a few challenges. We still need some replacement parts but he was able to get it running long enough to mow down some of our weeds that we call grass. Meanwhile, Tyler helped me finish building my garden box. I am going to attempt square-foot gardening this year. I hope I don't have a black thumb. (I'll post pictures of the garden later) We also decorated the house for Easter/Spring.

Tyler asked me about 30 times on Saturday: "Is it Easter Day yet?" No matter how many times I told him it wasn't going to be for a long time, he kept asking. So to make the next 4 weeks not seem so long we made a countdown chain. Lets hope it satisfies him.

My little bunny!

I love this spring decor. My friend Chelsey actually made it, when she decided to get rid of it, I decided I'd like to inherit it. I love it!

Here is a picture of Tyler with one of his favorite foods. I wish olives still fit on my fingers.

Of course, we also watched General Conference on both Saturday and Sunday. I am thankful that we have the BYU channel on our basic cable package which made things so much easier. I enjoyed hearing from our prophet and all the other general authorities. My friend judged her favorite talk on the one that made her cry the most. If I was to do that, it would definitely be the talk given by Elder Richard G. Scott. What a wonderful talk. He talked about his wife and children that have already passed on. I loved how he talked about his relationship with his sweet wife. It makes me want to try harder to show Donny how much I love him. I am grateful to be sealed to my husband and children. I am so grateful for the knowledge of being an eternal family. I love my boys so much.

Tyler did very well during conference. I printed off some cute activities I found online. It helped keep him interested. I love that he can recognize President Monson and got so excited each time it showed him.

Here is a chain of the first presidency and the 12 apostles.

On this page he was supposed to draw a picture of himself. My mom says it looks like Charlie Brown. Donny thinks it looks like a Character from the night before Christmas. Either way, I think it is great!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

2011-03-31T09:04:00.003-06:00

As Donny says " Today we sold our last shred of coolness to the minivan Gods." Well it's true. We have finally purchased our first car together as a couple. It is not the car we ever envisioned being our first, but it'll do. We are actually very excited to have this vehicle. It's been a while since we have had a second car. It is very spacious, and i love the stow and go seats! Tyler thinks it's the best thing ever! Here she is, our Dodge Grand Caravan:

2011-03-24T18:45:00.003-06:00

We finally ventured down to Atlanta to see some of the attractions. This is us at the World of Coca-cola! (mostly pictures, i'll try to do better updates soon, but this is what you get for now.)He wonders why we won't let him drink his coke. (Tyler + caffeine = not a good thing.)
Tyler tasting the soda. Sugar rush!
We got to taste all kinds of flavors of soda. This was Donny's favorite from Africa. Although, my brother is in Uganda and he has never seen this kind. :( It was yummy though.
We went to a 3D movie and Tyler wasn't fond of the glasses. He preferred Mommy to wear his.
running around the museum with Daddy.
I'd like to order a coke, please!
Coca-cola bear!
The first coke machine!

2011-02-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

Georgia!

So if you didn't already know, we moved to Georgia in January. I (Donny) started a new job with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Marietta, GA, where I work as an analyst on the C-130 program. They make airplanes like this one:

Here are some pictures of the big move from Utah to Georgia. Luckily the company paid to have us moved, so we flew to Georgia while our stuff traveled in a truck.

All of our stuff, boxed very carefully (or maybe just a little un-carefully, thanks packing guys...), waiting to go on the truck.

Tyler loved the airport and the whole flying experience. It didn't even bother him that he threw up on the plane...

After we got to Georgia, we stayed in a hotel for about 10 days, including five or so that the whole area was completely shut down, thanks to the "Great snowstorm of 2011"

Once the area thawed, we were able to find a place and get our stuff. It seemed to take forever, but we're moved in and loving life! The people are really friendly here, and we've felt welcomed and comfortable. Here are some pictures of the house:

2010-12-22T14:55:00.003-07:00

Hicken's Top 10 of 2010

10- Went on vacation to both Arizona and Idaho.

9- We completely repainted and moved back into our condo in Provo.

8- Megan started her own cake business. Zoobiecakes.com

7- Tyler went to his first BYU football game and loves to sing the cougar fight song.

6- Donny picked up golf.

5- Megan ran in her first 5K.

4-Tyler turned 3 and loves to act his age.

3- Tyler is proud to announce that he'll be a big brother in June 2011.

2- Donny graduated from BYU with a BS in Business Management.

1- Donny got a job offer with Lockheed Martin. So we will be moving to Atlanta, GA in January.

2010-12-22T14:25:00.006-07:00

This year we started a annual cousin Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. We ate dinner, had a white elephant gift exchange and played games. I only got pictures of people playing the Kinect on the x-box. The game I think is called dance off. Here are a few pictures I took. I wasn't able to get a picture of everyone and my videos were to big to upload. But you get the idea.

Brandi Pineda

Celeste (soon to be Snyder)

Emmalee Lawrence

Ben Devoe

Cherese Devoe

Tyler Snyder

Tori Snyder (and Ashley in the background)

Gracie Devoe

This is a wedding cake I made for a friend I went to High school with. I could not have done this cake with out a lot of help from family and friends. thanks everyone who helped.

Tyler got to meet Santa Claus at the ward Christmas party. He was so thrilled he would not leave his side the entire time he was there. He sat in this chair next to Santa and helped hand out candy to all the children. He was Santa's little helper.

Here he is sitting on his lap. He asked him for a pillow pet and Little Einstein movies. We will see, i guess.

2010-12-22T13:57:00.005-07:00

Tyler and I went out to Roosevelt a couple days before Halloween but I didn't bring his costume. We went to the store and this is what we came up with. Doesn't he make the cutest puppy in the world?

Each year my family has a family Halloween Party. Here are the costumes of those that came.

Mom and Dad : crazy tourists

John and Amanda : Rosie and a whoopie cushion.

Em, Rob, Dean and Brig : Starwars characters.

Tyler and Dean had fun smashing Frankenstein piñata

Large cauldron full of homemade rootbeer. unfortunately we couldn't find any dry ice.

Pumpkin pizza!

Our family pumpkins we carved at our ward Halloween party.

Here are our costumes. Cookies and Milk!

My little brother, Matthew, left on his mission to Kampala, Uganda. We sure miss him! These photos were taken right before he left.

Tyler and Uncle Matt!

October fun!

2010-10-15T14:02:00.000-06:00

I brought Tyler to a cute little pumpkin patch in Springville to choose his Halloween pumpkin this year. He LOVED it. Besides going out and picking our own pumpkins they had other fun children activities.

Here is Tyler trying to make his way through the maze of Hay.
Which way do I go?

Here are the 3 pumpkins we decided on. We will be carving them in a week, so stay tuned.

I am not sure what you call this... a cornbox, instead of a sandbox? We had corn EVERYWHERE, and hay.Playing on the big hay pyramid.
They also had a cute little petting zoo. Probably Tyler's favorite part. They had goats, sheep, little donkeys, and even a baby kangaroo.

Tyler is pretty excited about his Halloween costume this year. So as soon as i finish it i will post.

Tyler's Birthday

2010-10-03T14:41:00.000-06:00

For Tyler's birthday we took him bowling, which he absolutely loved. We won't talk about the bowling scores... but it is probably illustration enough that Tyler ended up with the highest score.

Then, later in the week we had a birthday party with lots of friends & family. Megan made the cake (which is the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, for those of you who don't watch much Playhouse Disney.)

We're still alive!

2010-07-08T21:07:00.000-06:00

Sorry we haven't posted for 4 months. We are okay though. Thanks.

(We'll post again within the year.)

Snowmouse?

2010-03-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

We woke up to a bunch of snow last Friday morning. So I decided to enjoy it and show Tyler how to build a snowman. He was more interested in throwing snowballs then the boring old snowman so I decided to make it have a Mickey Mouse head. Who wouldn't be excited about that? It worked. Well here is out piece of art:

The snowmouse

Hugs!

Throwing snowballs.

Peek-a-boo!

Putting on the final touches!

Cookie Cutters.

2010-03-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

There is this adorable little hair shop for kids here in American Fork. Its called Cookie Cutters. I decided to bring Tyler to get his first professional hair cut. I usually cut his hair, i thought this might help me get some tips. It was so much fun. The kids get to choose what vehicle they get to sit in and what movie they want to watch. They also get a sucker, balloon, and a cookie cutter. I'm not sure haircuts at home quite compare. We may have to make this a ritual.

Tyler chose the airplane. and was very excited as you can tell by this cheesy smile! He also chose to watch Monsters Inc. which is his favorite show of the month.

And here is the result. Isn't he handsome?

Boys best friend.

2010-03-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

Tyler has finally decided not to be afraid of my parents dog, Olive. Infact, you'd think they were destined to be best friends.

We are still alive!

2010-03-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

WE'RE BAAAACK! Okay, we never really left anywhere, just out of commission for a while. I've just been really lazy about blogging lately. I'm still trying to catch up on reading all my friends blogs. I thought i'd take a break and update mine while i'm at it.

Those of you who don't know, we are back in Utah and living with my parents for the time being. Not our ideal living arrangements but it hasn't been to bad. Our condo is being rented, with the best renters we could ask for, until the end of July. In which we will be moving back there to Provo. I can't wait. Our ward here has been fun. We both got calling right when we moved in, which has helped us feel more involved. I teach the 15/16 year old Sunday school class and Donny is with the wild crazy sunbeams. I like to think they got our callings mixed up, but i guess maybe they are just teaching us to overcome our fears. It has been a good experience.

We miss Florida, especially the weather, but it has been nice to be back home and close to family and friends.

Three best cousins!

(or only cousins)

Donny is attending his second to last semester at BYU. He's hoping to get another internship this summer. I am excited for another adventure, so cross your fingers with us. Donny entered into a competition to design a webpage for me with the school. So we changed the name of the cake business and now it seems more official. Thanks Donny for all your hard work. Check out my new site at zoobiecakes.com Here are just 2 of my favorite cakes i've made this year. There are more on my website or you can become a fan of them on facebook. Just search Zoobie Cakes.

Tyler has entered into his terrible twos.. Okay, he's not that bad but he does have his moments. So he has recently been introduced to "the corner." He actually enjoys it most the time. So i am not sure how well it is working.
I am pretty sure Tyler is going to be a great big brother. He LOVES his newest cousin Brigham. He always wants to hold him and feed him. Look at that grin... what a cheese!
Every year I like to think of the holidays as "eggnog season", but not Donny. I think he would refer to them as "Cherry Cordial season". For the past who knows how many years Donny and his cousin Nathan have both eaten a cherry cordail when they get together. Did I mention they both HATE Cherry cordials? Well over the past few years they have began to get more creative. This year Nathan surprised Donny with a Cherry Cordial PIE! Which he used 4 BOXES of cherry cordials to make it. Well they both sat down to eat this delight, everyone was laughing so hard tears were coming. Nathan i think got about one bit before he ran to the bathroom. While Donny slowly chewed his, savorying each flavor, then responded "It tastes like chemicals." I think Donny is already plotting how he can top Nathans pie next year.

We brought Tyler sledding and he thought it was the greatest adventure of his life. Luckily all this snow has replaced Tyler's love of the beach, he now asks "build snowman!" instead of "Go beach, go beach!." I thought we were going to break his heart when we got home. He really loves the snow and his gloves, hats, and Handy Manny boots he got for Christmas.

We spent Christmas with Donny's family in Roosevelt this year. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures off the annual Christmas morning silly string fight. Even shadow got covered this year. Poor dog!

Back from Miami!

2009-12-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well, our Miami adventure has finally ended and we are glad to be back in our home state. We've meant to post a few times about things we did, but lately we've been slacking a bit. Here's a quick catch-up of some of the previously un-blogged things we did in Miami. In the last couple of months we...

...went to the Miami Seaquarium a few times (this is like a smaller, older, less expensive Sea World.)

...spent some time at the beach

...enjoyed a tropical garden place

...went to this cool lighthouse on Key Biscayne

...went to a Monday Night Football game and saw the Colts beat the Dolphins

...went trick-or-treating

...and, of course, went to Disney World. These were probably the three happiest days of Tyler's life so far.

2009-11-24T18:29:00.001-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Key West!

2009-11-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we made the trek down to Key West, which we figured we needed to see before leaving Miami. It's a pretty unique drive - it takes about four hours, and about three of those hours the road is actually off of the Florida peninsula and you drive on bridges over the ocean from island to island. We just went for one day, but we had a great time. Here are some of the things we did:

We went to the Key West aquarium first. It is a pretty unique old place - it was one of the first things built in Key West to try to attract tourists. They have a tank where you can pick up some of the sea creatures, which was pretty cool. Here is a picture of Megan & Tyler holding a little starfish. Tyler did really well and wasn't too scared.

Here I am holding a horseshoe crab, which was very weird to have in your hands. As soon as you put your fingers on the edge of their shell, they would try to push them off with their legs. Very weird sensation.

Family pic by the ocean

When you see giant people dancing in the middle of the town, what else can you do other than join in the fun?

Tyler getting his portrait done...

No Key West visit would be complete without a visit to the "Southernmost Point" marker, which commemorates being the point farther south than any other place in the Continental US.
Another popular photo point in Key West - where the road (the only road connecting Key West to Florida) begins.
At the end of each day, they have what they call the "sunset celebration," where a lot of street performers all come out and do little shows for all of the tourists. There were escape artists, jugglers, magicians, people pretending to be robots, people pretending to be statues (not sure what makes someone decide to be a statue - maybe one day they are thinking: "hey, you know I am really good at holding really still. I need to find a way to make money doing this!" Anyway...) It was a pretty cool atmosphere, with some pretty talented people. The begging for money at the end of the shows was kind of lame, but I guess that's how they make their living...

We took this video of a fire-breather guy - you can watch it as long as you give him a dollar next time you go to Key West and see him perform. Enjoy!

Our little BYU fan!

2009-10-22T18:58:00.000-06:00

Daddy has taught him well!

Go Cougars!

Touch Down!

Back in August!

2009-10-02T08:14:00.000-06:00

We had our friends Abby and Sean come visit us from Utah! We had lots of fun. Here are a few things we did together....

We went on a Jungle riverboat cruise in Fort Lauderdale.

This is the "Jungle Queen" (the boat we rode.)

This is what most the rivers looked like. They are just like streets through neighborhoods, they all have yachts or boats parked out side.There were HUGE mansions. I can't remember who's house this was, some famous person.This is a large yacht we saw. It belongs to David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA. It cost 30 million dollars! WOW!We thought this sign was great. My little Brothers name is Andrew Cooley!Tyler looking cool in my sun glasses!We stopped at one of the islands(the jungle) and they fed is dinner and had some entertainment, a comedian, and a magic show. There were parrots, monkeys, and other animals on the jungle island.

Sean, Abby, Me, Donny, and Tyler!

We were also about to hit a Miami Dolphins pre-season game. That was a lot of fun. We had seats in the 3rd row. It poured rain on us, that is why we are all soaked! But the rain made it a lot of fun!Our family in front of the field!

Thanks for coming and visiting us Abby and Sean. We had so much fun! And for everyone else, if you come visit we can have lots of fun with you too!! ;) (hint, hint)

Happy Birthday Tyler!

2009-09-17T11:40:00.000-06:00

I cannot believe my little boy is 2 years old. It seems like he was just a baby yesterday.

Now he is so big,

helpful,

and goofy!

We sure love having him in our lives and are so grateful for him.

Here is a slide show of his birthday party, gifts, cake, etc.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Brigham Marcus Lawrence

2009-09-08T08:25:00.000-06:00

I am proud to be an Aunt of another adorable nephew. This is my second nephew. He was born September 4. weighed 7lbs 7oz 20 inches long. and has tons of hair. I am so sad I wont beable to hld him until he is almost 4 months old but I am still going to be his favorite aunt!!

Congratulations Emmalee and Rob and Dean!

Dean is so happy to be a big brother. He can't get enough of baby Brig.

Here he is. Adorable. Look at that long hair, he almost needs a haircut already!

Patricia Stoker Steiner

2009-09-03T12:39:00.000-06:00

This is my sweet grandma! She passed away last Saturday afternoon with my grandpa by her side. My grandma was so wonderful, crazy, full of life, stubborn, spiritual, and loving depending on the day. I loved her so much! I know that she is happy and in a more comfortable place, with her 2 children that passed on before her. She struggled with Alzheimers the last part of her life and we are all glad to know she is better now. My grandma always wanted to babysit her great grandbabies, but with the alzheimers we were never able to leave them in her care. I like to think that she is watching over our future babies. I know she will do a good job. I am going to miss seeing her at family parties, i'll miss her sense of humor, and most especially her hugs. She was a great example to me and I have so many fond memories of her! The hardest part is not being able to go to her funeral, but I know she will forgive me. God bless you Grandma, until we meet again. I love you!

Discovery Launch

2009-08-31T07:21:00.000-06:00

On Friday night we took a drive up to Titusville, Fl to watch space shuttle, Discovery, launch. It was a fun experience. I mean who wouldn't drive 3 hours to watch a 5 minute event just to turn around and drive home another 3+ hours. It was worth it to us. We consider it a once in a life time experience. Here are a few photos:

This is a street lamp behind our heads not the shuttle.

The shuttle, and everyone taking photos of it.

Tyler and I with the shuttle behind us.

the shuttle, almost out of sight.

this is a video of it launching. It is kind of short because we wanted to get pictures of it too. It was so cool to see! Enjoy!

6 month vacation...

2009-08-23T17:25:00.000-06:00

Well, it appears that it's been a month since our last update. (Whoops!) In that month we have been able to get settled in and begin to enjoy some of the things to do around Miami. Here are some slide shows... in no particular order.

I had a birthday on the 14th of August. I'm now 25. I don't feel any older though, yet. Donny took us on a boat tour of the bay and to hard rock cafe. It was a lot of fun. Tyler loves boats and kept waving at all the passing boats.

We got a annual pass to the Miami Metro Zoo. It is large and very fun. Here are some photos of our last trip. We went with some of our new friends, the Tingeys! It was fun and poured rain! We rented a Safari bike to go around the zoo and it was well worth it. While we were there Tyler was playing in the water when he collided with a girl and fell on his face. His bottom teeth went into his upper lip and he was bleeding and got a nice fat lip! Luckily dad saved the day and bought him a 32oz Slurpee in which he consumed himself! At least he stayed hydrated right?

more photos coming soon!!!!!!

Home Sweet Home....for the next 6 months!!

2009-07-12T21:15:00.000-06:00

This is us looking down. Way down. Our pool is the one that is L shaped. The other is the neighbor buildings pool. Our pool in on the 11th floor! Our new bed!

The other side of our room.

Living room. Our beautiful couches!!

Donny's new pride and joy!
I tried to get a photo of the whole set up. It is Living room, dining room, and kitchen all in one.

Our SWEET shower!

Comes with this nice baby! I'm so excited to have a Brand New washer and dryer!

All our appliances are brand new as well. We used the oven for the first time today! I don't want to go back to my old hand-me-downs.

My daring child!!! He loves looking over the edge! I am convinced this is a BAD thing!

Night time view to our left!~

Day time view to our right! This is the bay. The Island out there is Miami/South beach.

this is a video of our entire view in the night! You can't see the ocean well but it is the big black area!!!!!

Where in the world is.... Donny, Megan and Tyler????

2009-07-08T15:40:00.000-06:00

So a lot of you know and some have no clue... so we thought we would update you all and let you know what is new with us. WE MOVED!!! (let me explain and sorry about all the words.)

On Wed. June 24th, Donny received an email saying he got a 6 month internship and was to report for orientation on Wed. July 1st at 9AM. In Fort Lauderdale Florida! Whoa.... WHAT???

In 2 days we packed up our home and put what we could fit into my parents van. Everything else, which was pretty much everything, has a new home in a storage unit. thanks to everyone who helped us pack and move in such short notice. There is no way we could have done it with out you all. Saturday we said our goodbyes and headed out on our LONG 4 day drive across the country.

DAY 1:

We had a later start than we thought so we only drove 6 hours on Saturday. We stopped in Rawlins, Wyoming and had delicious burritos for dinner with Donny's Uncle Roger and Aunt Cheri. We spent the night in Cheyanne, WY. After going to the 5 FULL hotels, we finally found one that was available at about midnight.

I don't know what it is about wind mills but they are so cool looking! Reminds me of the movie, "Mac and Me." (highly recommended if you've never seen it)
Doesn't Tyler look thrilled to be in the back with all the luggage. Poor kid had a long ride! He did so well though!
Day 2:

I set my alarm for 5:30 AM. It didn't go off. But thankfully I woke up at 6 and we were out of there by 6:30am. We made it to Kansas City that night, we pulled in at about 7:30. We had lost an hour, due to the time zone change. This night was fun. We got to spend the night at the home of my good friend, Cassie, from high school. Thanks Cass! She makes a fabulous taco salad. We were also able to set up a time to meet with Donny's brother, Elder Kyle Hicken, who is serving in that area. It was so good to see Kyle. He has been out for 15 months and has not seen Tyler since he was 6 mo. old. Tyler thought it was fun seeing his uncle Kyle and enjoyed calling him "Psycho Kyko"!

If you have never been to Kansas......Well here it is!!!

Day 3:

Donny thought it was smart for him to set the alarm this time. He set it for 5 o'clock, hence the 15 hour drive we had ahead of us that day. It would have been great had he set it for AM instead of PM. We finally left Cassie'e house at 7:30am. We stopped and took a picture at the arch in St. Louis. We drove to Enterprise, Alabama that night. We didn't get in until past midnight. Thankfully my cousin Julie still took us in. She had a nice blow up mattress and everything set up for us. Thanks Julie!!!

This is how we found Tyler when we woke up in the morning! Day 4:

We only had a 9 hour drive this day. We both set our alarms, and they both went off this time :)! We took our time getting ready and visiting. It is pretty sad when 9 hours seems like a short drive. but Tyler enjoyed the break and was able to play with Julies girls for a while. We booked a hotel that night and then headed on our way. When we arrived it was pouring rain and dark. It had been perfect weather until then. a nice welcome to our new home. We got to out hotel which ended up being a junker! Not at all what it looked like online. There was a huge hole in the wall with the fire alarm hanging out and the carpet was very sticky, we had to wear shoes at all times. but we arrived safely and soundly.

We got a crack out of this lovely wall hanging above our bed! The next morning Donny had orientation. He found out he would be working in the Miami office not in Fort Lauderdale. So after Donny returned home from doing paperwork, drug tests, and fingerprints, we drove down to Miami.

Some reason in my head i pictured Miami as more of a vacation area than the HUGE city it is. It was scary. People here drive like maniacs. There are homeless all over, not just on the street corners but sitting in the middle of the road. I can't tell you how many times we were honked at. it didn't help that out GPS was having a hard time getting reception between all the tall buildings and we ended up on a one way street... headed the wrong way. that could have ended up worse then it did. We made it safely back to our hotel that night and both wondered what in the world we had got ourselves into.

The next day was much better. We moved to a nicer hotel. I felt a lot more relaxed just being there. They even let us check in early with no additional charge. Donny started work in the Miami office. He works on the 10th floor. He is a little overwhelmed at everything he has to do but he is enjoying learning something new. I know he will do great! I received a phone call from Kira, the wife of the intern, Tommy, who is training Donny. Donny had told Tommy what an adjustment we were having and that we were not sure how to find a place to live. Kira was very helpful. She gave my phone number to some sisters in the ward. Also, she gave me some other suggestions that were very helpful. One sister in the ward, Jen, called me and invited us over to see their apartment. after Donny got off work we went over to Jen and Ryan's place. It was very nice. Everywhere around here has Valet parking and security everywhere. It is different but it definitely makes me feel more safe. Jen also invited over the Tingey's. (another couple in the ward that lives a couple buildings down.) Geoff Tingey is also a intern at Citigroup. He was there the last 6 months but has extended and is staying another 6 months. We are excited to get to know him and his wife, Betsey, better! They live right by the Bay and it is beautiful. Betsey says she has seen dolphins and other cool fish come into the bay lately. That sold me on living in that area right away!

This is the view from Donny's window at work. And no, the streets are not flooded. Those are rivers!

In order to rent a apartment here in Miami, the best way is to get a real estate agent. I had never heard of that for renting. We set up a few appointments and the next few days we looked around. There were some nice places but none totally stuck out to us. Rent is ridiculous here! For a 1 bedroom, you will pay anywhere from $1100 to $1400 depending if it is furnished or not.

We enjoyed the 4th of July. We had an appointment set up for that morning to look at a place that was on the 44th floor of a high rise building. I hate heights so you can imagine my relief when the agent never called us back. We again switched hotels to an extended stay hotel, which is a little cheaper. I again had a break down because we had not found a home yet. Tyler is having a hard time adjusting and doesn't enjoy switching hotels every couple days. That evening we went to dinner with Kira and Tommy. We ate at Chili's in the Bayshore mall. Again we were able to experience the strange people of Miami. As we were eating out meal, on the balcony, just over the bay. The cops came and arrested a lady, right in the restaurant. She was fighting and screaming like a crazy. She was fighting so bad she fell over and they practically had to pick her up and carry her out. It was quite hilarious actually. We were still eating when the fireworks started going off. A large barge came into the bay and shot fireworks off. it was beautiful and fun. Tyler was scared to death at first. then he got used to it and was clapping by the end.

Sunday was nice. We got to go to our new ward. It is only 30 minutes away. That still seems so weird to me. We would have been on time if the roads in Miami were anywhere close to normal but we had to do a weird U-turn to get into the parking lot. It is the only way to get in. It just took us about 15 minutes to figure it out haha. The ward was a decent size. It is made up of a lot of different ethnic cultures and ages. Very different than the young married student ward we are used to. we had a lot of people come introduce themselves to us. Don't ask me to remember names. Tyler enjoyed nursery and the leaders said he was great. Although, they didn't know his name the whole class. We were able to meet the bishop and fill out papers to transfer our records. We are excited to start new, and to serve in the ward.

Monday morning, Donny calls me from work to inform me that the agent wants us to come look at the 44th story apartment. Ugh!!! He set up a time for 8 o'clock that evening. All day I worked up my guts and finally convinced myself that it is worth the look, but that is all. When we arrived and got in the elevator, the realtor pushed floor 48! 48??? When did 44 turn to 48? Oh well i closed my eyes and up we went. It wasn't that bad really. I couldn't even tell that the elevator was moving. The apartment was GORGEOUS. Brand new. It is fully furnished, dishes and everything. It has a washer and dryer. and the most amazing view. I did go out on the balcony, not to the edge but on it none the less. it didn't look so high because I could see the roof of the building next to us, it only looked like we were 15 floors up instead of 48. I didn't look over the edge though! Well we needed to talk about it and i guess the agent took that as if we weren't interested and dropped the price $100 a month just like that! Wow, we are great negotiators!

Needless to say, we took the offer and after negotiating a few more things we got the place! I keep wondering how Donny won this fight?! I am happy to have a place though. We need to get settled so we can enjoy ourselves better and start to feel at home. We move in this weekend. We will get better pictures on here soon!!!!

This is a view of our place from a distance. Ours in the tallest one, the sort of oval shapped one!

Lots of pictures!

2009-07-06T10:01:00.000-06:00

We had a cat for about 2 weeks! We had named him Macaroni, Tyler called him "wawawoni". He was a lot fo fun. Tyler liked to pick him up, pull him by hiw ears and smash him with his toy cars. Poor thing. Silly cat was thirsty...This is my sweet Grandma. She is in the hospital and not doing to well. We love her so much!

She loves to hold Tyler and sing him songs. Even though the songs don't make much sense most the time it is a special moment.

I started a cake website. You should check it out.
Thelandofcakebelieve.blogspot.com
Here are a few of my latest cakes:
My First Wedding cake!This is one of my favorites. It was for a baby shower!

Donny's sister was in the Miss Utah Pageant again. We had a fun week going and watching her compete!

Tyler was more interested in the water then any of the Miss Utah princesses!

These are just some fun pictures of our summer so far.

My cousin Tori came and stayed with us for the month of June. Tyler just LOVED it!

We went camping with my sister and her family. Tyler and Dean loved there little camping chairs.

We went out to Roosevelt for Donny's brothers graduation.

We went to the drive in movie while we were there.

Tyler enjoyed planting flowers with Grandma Hicken!

Congratulations on Graduating Eric!

We went on a nice hike up to stewart falls with some friends.

We attended a "Clue Party" with a bunch of friends. We all dressed up as the characters and played a live game of clue. So fun. I was Mrs. White and Donny was a made up character..The Butler.

My Good cousin Brandon got married. Yeah! We absolutly love these guys. We are so happy for you Brandon and Brandi, congratulations.
(my cousin Cherese took this picture. Isn't she great. check her out cheresespix.blogspot.com)

Brandon and Brandi both enjoy dancing, infact that is how they met. So of course they had a dance and their reception. Tyler LOVED it. Here are a few pictures of him dancing.

I love this one, even though it is blurry.

This is me and a few of my freinds up at bridal veil falls!

That is what we have been doing for the past few months. Sorry about the long post. There is more to come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What we have been up to...

2009-05-03T15:49:00.003-06:00

I have not updated for a while so I have a lot of pictures. I put them in collages so it was not to hard to see all of them. So here are a few things we have been doing lately. Hope you enjoy!

Donny had finals a few weeks ago so on his last day Tyler and I thought we would celebrate, so we gave Daddy a heart attack. I got the idea from my friend Alyssa. Donny liked it!
Last week we brought Tyler to the zoo. We went with my brother and sister and their families. We had a lot of fun. Tyler LOVED all the animals.

When we were in the prairie dog holes, we had one come right up to us and look at us through the plastic. (below) and the giraffe was chewing but looks like he is smiling at us. We thought that was a great picture!

Last month we went to the Utah Grizzlies Hockey game. My awesome friend Desi got us free tickets. We got to sit up in a booth. the grizzlies didn't win but it was still a lot of fun! Thanks Desi!

For family home evening the other day we went up to the BYU bean museum. Tyler didn't know what a lot of the animals were but he kept saying "MEOW" to all the Lions and tigers and other large cats. It was cute. Then he saw one that looked like his stuffed animal, sausage. He thought that was pretty neat.

Easter 2009!

2009-05-03T15:10:00.000-06:00

I know this is a little late but we had such cute pictures from easter that I just had to share. Before Easter we colored eggs with cousin Dean. They had so much fun. There hands were dyed colors for a few days but it was all worth it. For Easter we gave Tyler a book and eggs full of treats, like gold fish, and fruit snacks. He loved them.

The day before Easter we headed over to Grandma and Grandpas house for a Easter egg hunt. It was rainy outside so the boys hunted the eggs in the house. Tyler did okay. He mostly wanted to just eat what was in the egg before he would get another. After the easter egg hunt and a yummy lunch, grandma brought Tyler and Dean down to the IFA store to see the baby chick and ducks. Tyler thought they were so much fun. We had a great Easter!

My recent cakes!

2009-04-17T12:27:00.000-06:00

I have been asked by a good friend if I would make her wedding cake in May. Since most wedding cakes are made with fondant(the really smooth icing) I decided I should learn how to use it. Turns out she wants a buttercream wedding cake, but it was fun learning to do fondant anyway. Here are a few of my first cakes.

This First one I made was for a girl in my ward who just had a baby girl. Her name is June and she is so adorable with a lot of dark hair.

This one was a bit more challanging. I think I need to get used to the fondant before I try one this challanging again. I thought I had enough fondant, then I didn't, and the fondant ripped at the corners. It was frustrating, but you get the idea of what I wanted the cake to look like right?

This one was a lot of fun. I make it for Easter. It worked out well, except the chicken legs would not stay up by themselves, so I had to prop them up with tooth picks. I still think it turned out pretty cute!

Well....

2009-04-01T16:29:00.001-06:00

You can't fake one of these!

Megan's been feeling a little weird lately, and when she came home from her workout today she was feeling pretty nauseous, so she's been wondering if she might be pregnant. We were pretty sure that she wouldn't be, but she wanted to take a test anyway. SURPRISE! This is the test she handed me about an hour ago. How crazy that we would actually find out we are pregnant on April Fool's Day! Nobody's going to believe it's true, but you can't really make up a fake test.

(But your pregnant sister-in-law can....)

I am pretty dissapointed with myself for falling for this, especially after listening to several fake pregnancy announcements this morning. I have to say, it was pretty well thought out and executed - I even thought I saw the beginning of tears in Megan's eyes when she came out of the bathroom! Geez....

I'm gonna have to get her back eventually.

Nursery Time!

2009-03-28T22:55:00.000-06:00

Our Tyler turned a year and a half on the 15th of March. What better excuse for a cake??? We play games with a few friends every Sunday. Usually I make cookies, but this time I made Tyler a half birthday cake.

He wasn't sure about the hat!

Also, since Tyler is now 18 months that means NURSERY! Yay!! Tyler was starting to become a handful at church, wanting to run everywhere. We were really looking forward to nursery. Ty did GREAT. He was so content he didn't even want to leave when we picked him up. He does very well except when the nursery leaders tell him he cannot eat the plastic bananas. (poor kid) Snack time is, of course, his favorite. He has been going to nursery since the beginning of March. Last week we were just walking down the hall, someone opened the door to the nursery and Tyler took off inside before we could even say goodbye. It is definitly harder for me than him. Although, I really enjoy being able to listen to the lessons again in Sunday school and Relief society.

Here is the picture he colored his first day in nursery. I'm so proud of him!!!

St. patricks Day!

2009-03-28T22:26:00.000-06:00

Okay I would say it is about time I updated. I know St. Patricks Day was a few weeks ago but here is what we did.

First, My sister in law, Amanda, is a little leprechaun. She was born on St patricks Day. My brother asked me to make her birthday cake. It is not the best cake I have ever made, but it was fun. Amanda collects snow globes, so that is what I attempted to do. It looks a bit cartoony or like a child colored it with crayons but oh well, I had fun. Here it is.....

Another fun thing we did for St. Patricks Day was go to a "parenting activity" that our ward was having. We had a play date and it included a delicious GREEN breakfast. Green eggs, pancakes, and milk. Thankfully the bananas were not green.

Here is Tyler and his buddy Noah.

2009-03-19T22:24:00.000-06:00

In response to HBO's plans to air an episode of "Big Love" where they depict sacred temple ceremonies, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has created a short video that explains the purpose of Mormon temples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x_-TQivCx8&feature=player_embedded

Deceptively Delicious!

2009-03-10T13:41:00.000-06:00

My wonderful husband got me the best Valentines gift EVER. The cookbook: Deceptively Delicious by: Jessica Seinfeld. basically you sneak vegetables and fruits into all kinds of meals and your picky children have no idea that they are eating them. Great idea! Since I have a somewhat picky child, who would prefer to eat everything but vegetables, this was a perfect gift. Today was my first try. I made Banana Nut bread w/ CAULIFLOWER! Here it is.......

THE GIFT

The Product!

The Result!!

PERFECTO!!!

(He even wanted more.)

25 Random Things About... Megan!

2009-02-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

I've been telling Megan she should post this since she's been tagged with it a time or two, but she never has done it. So, (with her approval) I decided to do it for her. So here's 25 things about my wife!

She hates bottled water - she'll actually dump out the water and fill it with tap water so she can use the bottle.

The feeling of metal on her teeth (like a fork or spoon) makes her cringe. So does the sound of metal on other people's teeth.

She doesn't eat the last bite of a sandwich if it is an edge. If it's a piece from the middle she will eat it.

She usually smells her food before she eats it.

Her favorite type of food is Italian.

She loves cats and thinks we should have one, even though she is allergic.

She has never been on an airplane.

She loves playing the game "Ticket to Ride" and always has to be the green player. If you take the green trains before she gets them, expect bad things to happen to you...

Her favorite singer is Peter Cetera from the band Chicago.

She has seen the Red Sox play in Fenway Park, while her sports fan husband has never been to a pro baseball game.

On the sports theme, she gets very excited when the NCAA tournament comes around and loves to fill out her bracket.

She loves to decorate cakes, and has quite a talent for it.

She learned to drive a manual transmission before I did.

She loves elderly people and worked with them as a CNA for 5+ years.

She's actually pretty good at identifying types of cars. I quiz her as we drive on the freeway and she does a good job.

She loves to read. She would read all day if she could.

She doesn't like fruit and chocolate together. Individually - yes, combined - no.

She makes perfect grilled cheese sandwiches every time. Never overcooked, never undercooked. I don't know how she does it.

She started planning Tyler's 1-year birthday party 6 months in advance. She's also planning a Barbie house she will build for our daughter - whenever (if) we have a daughter...

Brushing her teeth makes her gag - almost every time. (Way worse when she was pregnant)

She was called to go to the Tennessee Nashville Mission, but ended up getting married instead.

She & I both have four brothers and one sister.

She still has a stuffed Gremlin toy that she got when she was 1. She won't get rid of it even though it is in pretty rough shape....

She's really good at doing those sudoku puzzles. I gave up accepting her challenges to race because I had no chance of winning.

Her son thinks she is the best thing ever. I tend to agree with him!

Valentines Day!

2009-02-21T13:01:00.001-07:00

Every year for Valentines day we make sugar cookies and frost them. This year we invited my nephew Dean over to help us. Here are a few pictures from our cookie adventure. Tyler and Dean eating frosting off the beaters. Tyler and Dean ready in their aprons I made.

Tyler thought he would help by mixing the sprinkles in a bowl.

Dean putting the sprinkles on the cookies.

Cutting out the cookies. Dean enjoyed using the rolling pin, while Tyler just wanted to eat the dough.

and the cookies!
Here are the final product. We packaged these ones up and sent them to Grandma and Grandpa Hicken. (another tradition)

After we finished Tyler thought it would be fun to show what a mess he made on his face!

I don't know whose child this is.

Sausage Egg McMuffin

2009-02-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

Now because of the title you are probably thinking of a delicious, juicy, delectible breakfast sandwhich that you would get at McDonalds before 11 am in the morning. Well sorry to disappoint you but that is not the sausage McMuffin that I am talking about. This "Sausage" is Tyler's best friend.

Of all the adorable fluffy cute stuffed animals that Tyler owns... he chooses the ugliest one to be his favorite. His most sacred posession.

He Snuggles with him.He wont sleep with out him.He brings him everywhere, if we let him.He sometimes even prefers him over food. Now that is Love.

Tyler recieved Sausage from his Grandma Hicken last Valentines Day. Since then he has become part of the family. He has had 2 surgeries, due to his cheap fur. He has had a few baths and even lost his heart during one of them. We are glad Tyler loves Sausage. I'm not sure what he would do with out him.

New years resolutions.....

2009-01-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

For the most part I like January.... I think! It's hard to like the bitter cold but I love the renewed energy and motivation it gives me. Like most everybody else we set our new year resolutions at the beginning of January and we do pretty well until February and they all start going down hill. Well we hope that will not happen this year. We have set a bunch of small goals to help us reach our big goals. We will see how it goes. This year (like every year) we set a goal to eat healthy and improve our body image. So to do this we have been working out. Tyler thought this was an excellent goal so he decided to join the fun....... You're never to young for a six pack right?

Christmas Update

2008-12-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

It seems our blog is a little behind the times when it comes to our Christmas activities, so we will try to cram in as much as we can to get things up-to-date. First, we went to Donny's family party the weekend before Christmas, where we enjoyed the annual white elephant gift exchange. The star of the show was, of course, "the grapes" - they make an appearance every year and are always the life of the party. Grandma was the lucky winner this year, so they will be proudly displayed in her house. (Lucky Grandma....)
Tyler enjoyed making wrapping paper to get ready for Christmas - Megan's family used to do this when she was younger.

We came home a couple days before Christmas and got ready, then went to Megan's parents to spend the holiday. We were glad that we made the drive before all the snow came on Christmas morning. Tyler had a great time opening presents, though he couldn't understand why we were up so early. (Neither could we - he would have to ask his uncles about that one.) He loved his presents, and most of all he loved eating treats. (Maybe a little too much....) There was an early morning silly string attack, but most recovered from it fairly well. (Tyler didn't know what to think about it.) We also got to talk to Donny's brother Kyle, who is serving in the Independence Missouri Mission.

Megan's aunt's family had extra tickets to the Jazz game Friday night, so we were lucky enough to be able to go with them. We had a great time there - we sat on the very top of the arena. We also arrived early enough to get a free Jazz fleece blanket. Sweet!

Saturday we were off to another family Christmas party, this time with Megan's Dad's side of the family. Megan made some cupcakes from her new cupcake book (great gift!) Here are some pictures of how they turned out.

Christmas is coming.....

2008-12-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

Christmas is coming so soon. Just one more week. Yipee!! I thought I should get on the ball and post a few of our christmas adventures we have had this year, before the season is over.

We made gingerbread houses this year, two in fact. I don't ever remember making one before so this was a new adventure for me. i think they turned out pretty fun. The first one I made with Donny's brother and sister. My favorite part is the Santa and reindeer on top. Complete with a sleigh and santa's bag of toys on the chimney. They next house Donny and I made while Tyler enjoyed eating the red hots. It was a lot of fun.

We spontaneously went up to SLC on Monday night. We were driving to the store to rent a movie from the redbox and heard a commercial on the radio about a sing along up at the ESA with free admission, free food, and free parking. So we looked at each other and said "Wanna go?" So we turned around and headed to Salt Lake. It was a lot of fun. We got free hotdog and soda. They had a orchestra playing all the music. We sang Christmas songs and then Santa and the Jazz bear came. Tyler wasn't sure what to think of all the people in the arena. He pulled this face for the first little while. then he warmed up and was clapping and dancing and even trying to sing. It was so cute.

After the caroling sing along we rode trax over to Temple square. It was cold so we were not there very long. It was so nice to see all the beautiful lights. Here are a few pictures of that.

Then this evening my sister threw a suprise gradutaion party for her husband. It was fun. he had no idea. We had pizza and cake and ice cream. I didn't take pictures of the party but here are the cakes I made.

He graduated from UVU. We are so excited for him. Congratulations ROB!

Christmas Craziness

2008-12-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our living room, 2008. Some might say that we went overboard in decorating for Christmas this year... They're probably right.

Festival of trees

2008-12-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

I love the festival of trees. If you have never been, you should go. It is awesome. It is really not a bad price either. $4 for an adult. Less for children, free under 2. It is over now. It ended on Saturday. The best part about it is that all the money goes to primary childrens hospital. There are thousands of trees, decorated and set up through out the whole South towne expo center. People start planning for these trees and gather things for them through out the entire year. Some are all bought, others are hand made. This year one family's tree included a entire life long Santa clause collection of a relitive who had passed on. The tree was selling for $3500. That was one of the most expensive trees but most sell for at least $500. Again it all goes to primary childrens. They have other things there as well besides trees. They have delicious scones and cinnamon rolls! YUM! They have entertainment, a little shop to buy mostly hand made crafts and stuff, door decorations, and my favorite.... the ginger bread houses. WOW! I cannot believe the talent that go into some of these things. It is wonderful. My husbands family usually donates a tree every year. This year they took a break but I think they missed it. I hope they plan to do it next year because I really want to help. Here are some pictures of our day at the festival.

This tree was made of glass. It had lights behind each leaf and it danced to the music that was playing. Very cool.

This is our family picture with the snow man. Tyler got a little bored and fell asleep. This ginger bread castle was HUGE! You cancompare it with the people standing behind it. I cannot imagine how much ginger bread they used.This was one of my favorite gingerbread houses. I just thought it looked cool. They had a awesome cabin gingerbread house but my picture turned out fuzzy. It was my favorite. Very detailed.

Tomorrow we are making gingerbread houses with my sister and her family. If only we had this kind of talent.

Also, we had our ward christmas party last Friday evening. It was a Christmas morning theme. We all wore our PJs and had a yummy breakfast meal for dinner. This is becomming a tradition in our ward and it is so much fun. We also had a visit from Santa Clause. I'm not sure if that was a good or bad thing. I'm not sure one child was smiling while sitting on his lap. Those that dared were not very sure of him. Most were screaming their heads off. Here are a few pictures of Tyler with Santa.....

Aren't we cute elves?

2008-12-09T17:08:00.001-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Myth... Busted.

2008-12-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

I have always been told that you can't carve those miniature decorative pumpkins.... But as it turns out, yes you can! (cell phone added for size comparison)

(Maybe our next post will make the transition to Christmas instead of Halloween topics.)

Look who's walking!

2008-11-23T15:57:00.000-07:00

Look at our big boy! Isn't he so grown up? He's had the balance for quite a while, we were just wondering when he would be brave enough to take his first steps. Well now he wont stop. He loves it and he's so proud of himself. We are very proud of him too. He is a bit clumsy, even more so on our slippery wood floors but he's doing very well for just learning a couple of days ago.

Blog? What's a blog?

2008-11-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

For all of you accustomed to interesting, high-quality posts, I'd like to apologize. This is Donny, making my first post.... ever. So don't abandon our blog if you're unimpressed - Megan will still be handling most of the posting responsibilities. With that disclaimer, here goes...

I had a birthday last week. I am now a quarter of a century old. (sounds more impressive when you say it like that.) Megan (and her family) put together a very nice dinner & surprise party for me. She's good at things like that. Thanks to everyone that came, too. Here is a picture of me looking surprised.

In her usual style, Megan decided to make multiple cakes - which didn't clue me in to anything because she has done it before because she "can't decide which one to make." Here are her latest two creations: a football player and Lavell Edwards Stadium. Very impressive!

Thanks Megan for a great birthday!

Halloween update

2008-11-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun this year for halloween. We got to dress up quite a few times. First, our ward put on an awesome halloween party. Everyone had very creative costumes. We carved and painted pumpkins and then made carmeled apples. Yum! I didn't get a very good picture of our costumes but here they are....
I am a girl being abducted by an alien. (I wish I had a better picture) can you tell what I am? My boys are the MEN IN BLACK! Don't they look so good? I think so!

Second, We went to a family halloween party at my parents. We had a lot of delicious halloween treats. We played halloween pictionary. Then we split up into groups and made scarecrows out of anything we could find around the house. It was so funny. This is what my groups scarecrow turned out like. I'll tell you what, it would definitly scare me if I was a crow! haha

Donny and I brought Tyler to the pumpkin patch. We dressed him up as a frog for that. Tyler was also a frog on halloween night. We went to St. george and went to a trunk or treat and around the neighborhoods with my little cousins. Here are a few pictures of Tyler at the pumpkin patch and of our pumpkins we got there.

My pumpkin is the painted one. Donny's is the carved one. We later carved Tyler's when we were in St. George, but didn't get a picture.
We went to St. george because one of my best friends(Megan) got married on Saturday. It was a beautiful wedding. They are such funny people. Tyson (Megs husband) decided he wanted to wear a kilt for his wedding. Random, he is not Scottish, he didn't serve his mission in Scottland, he just wanted to, so he did. haha Then for the reception, they had everyone wear their halloween costumes. It was awesome. I didn't get any pictures of the reception, but here is a picture of the happy couple! I love you Meggs!!!

Bad Spagetti?

2008-10-09T11:13:00.000-06:00

I made spagetti for dinner. I'm not sure Tyler likes it. What do you think?

baby shower

2008-09-24T22:13:00.001-06:00

My mom, sister, and I threw a baby shower for my two cousins. Felicia and Cherese. This is Felicia's first and its a girl. I am so excited for her. Then Cherese is having her 3rd but first boy! Yipee. We love boys! Anyway, I was incharge of the treat and I completly forgot to take pictures of my treats. I made fruit flowers, but not with out the help of my wonderful sister-in-law Amanda. I also made flower cupcakes that looked like a bouqet of roses. So just imagine, they were beautiful. Here is the only picture of the food I made......frosting.

I did get pictures of the gifts I made them. I made them both a diaper cake. Well Amanda helped wrap that diapers, which was the hardest part. Really they were pretty simple and fun to make. They had 2 cans of formula in the centers. Here they are....

Congrats! Felicia and Cherese, I can't wait to see your new babies.

Birthday time!

2008-09-15T21:38:00.000-06:00

My sweet baby turned 1 year old today. I can't believe he's so old. Seems like just yesterday he came into this world, yet it feels like he's been a part of my life forever. The year has gone by so fast. We had a fun rubber ducky birthday party for him on Saturday. He got so many gifts, thank you everyone that came. He loves them. He enjoyed opening his gifts and eating his cake. Here are a few pictures....

Tyler's party this way...

Follow the duck feet

The sign says, "Welcome to Tylers tub! "Come on in the waters fine."

blow up duck full of drinks

Snacks

These are the cups to put your snacks in. Cute little ducks eh?

I couldn't decide on what cake to make. So I made 3 small ones. I know I am ridiculous, but most of it was eaten.

This one fell apart as I was putting it on the table... but you get what it was right..?

We had some baby bottle bowling! GO MADILYN!!

Tyler opening his gifts. He tried to climb right in all the bags to get his toys. it was so funny!

He finally got a ball. Thanks Chels!

Tyler mostly just picked at the ducks face. I think he was nervous with everyone looking at him.

He finally dug in when the attention was off him.

I thought of buying a bubble blower but instead I had my brother Matt. Tyler loved the bubbles! Thanks Matt!!!

The birthday party was a blast. Now we just have to find a spot for all his new toys. Thanks for everyone that came. Happy birthday Tyler. I love you so much!

GIRLS NIGHT OUT!

2008-09-13T17:51:00.000-06:00

Hey Girls!!!

We all need a girls night out once in a while.... well here is your chance!

I am hosting a jewelry party at my house on Wednesday, Sept. 17. At 6:30pm. You are ALL invited. It's going to be a lot of fun. We will be having light snacks and refreshments. Also learning a little about Lia Sophia jewelry. Which is awesome.! There will be prizes and a chance to get some money off the jewelry if you want to buy some.

If you don't like jewelry or don't have money well COME ANY WAY.! Come enjoy a night with the girls.

Just for your information if you are interested, Lia Sophia has a September special going on:

Buy 2 pieces at regular price

get up to 4 pieces at half off.

Thats a great deal but whats best about it is that you can buy 2 $5 items and use them as your regular priced items and than if you want something thats $100, you can get it 50% off! AWESOME!

I don't really want to post my address on here but if you send me a quick email I will send you details to my house. meg_n_donny@hotmail.com

Please come and bring a friend!!

If you can't come but are interested in the jewelry. You can look at it online at www.liasophia.com/deonne if you order any before September 20th, put my name as the host. Thanks, hope to see you all there!

Megan Hicken

Tyler's first haircut

2008-09-09T21:17:00.000-06:00

You are all probably wondering why one earth I would cut Tylers hair when he hardly has any anyway. Well 2 reasons. 1- His hair was growing in so un even and he had these funny looking wings on the side that were driving me CRAZY! 2- I heard that if you cut their hair it will grow back faster and thicker. So we will see. He was SO good for his hair cut. I thought he would be scared of the clippers but he held very still and did GREAT!

BEFORE

DURING
The large amount of hair that was cut off. haha
AFTER

Isn't he adorable???

My newest creation!

2008-09-06T17:54:00.001-06:00

My nephew Dean turns 2 tomorrow. Today was his birthday party. I was asked to make the cake. I was so excited! I found this cute cake online and decided to give it a shot. It turned out better than I imagined. Definitly better than the cake I made him last year. Here is the green dinosaur......

My embarrassing moment

2008-09-04T23:38:00.000-06:00

I usually like to add a picture each time I post. Maybe because I feel like they are more interesting than what I write. But you will all probably be thankful I didn't add one after you read this....

Being a CNA for about 6 years, and a mother, poop has never really bothered me, until today....

Today has not been a good day for Tyler... When I walked in his room this morning to get him out of bed,his room smelled awful. I decided I better change his diaper, well I didn't just change his diaper, but his outfit and entire bed. What a mess. I figured he had just eaten something that upset his stomach. About an hour later it happened again. 2 baths in one day! Well he wasn't acting sick or grumpy and seemed better so I went about my day. Thankfully no more accidents.

About 9:15 or so Donny and I left my parents to go home but I needed to run to the store first. We stopped at Macey's in Provo to grab a few things. We were headed down the baking aisle when I smelled something. I looked at Donny and said "We better hurry before we have another explosion." and I took off down the aisle. Not even a second later Donny starts saying " OH NO! OH NO! OH NO!" Well you guessed it. Diarrhea EVERYWHERE. Oh my gosh it was so aweful. I ran to the bathroom and grabbed a handful of paper towels, but that wasn't enough. We asked a couple workers if they could help us and they were so nice but I felt so bad. Then I had to go to the bathroom to change Tyler while he's SCREAMING his head off. And last of all I had to expalin to the cashier what happened and why I was walking around with a plastic bag wrapped around my sons bottom(just incase it happened again) I asked the cashier to please find someone to take the cart to be sanatized, because it was discusting. Well she just gave me this look like "Are you serious?" well yes I was very serious. She then turned to the bagger and asked him if he would help me. I then had to explain what had happened all over again. He was very very nice and understanding, thankfully or I might have broke down in tears. We planned to make a short trip to the store and we didn't get out of there til 11 o'clock. Now we are up drinking pedialite all night. Luckily we made it out of the store alive and we will call the doctor in the morning.

I hope you all had a better day than me! Oh, but I still love being a mom!

August happenings

2008-08-20T20:26:00.000-06:00

I don't mean for it to be a month between each post but with our internet is still not working great, I really don't have patience nor time to do this. So here I am at my mothers using her internet so you all don't think I am completely lost. Here is what the Hicken's have been up to this month! Not in any particular order...

We went to Colorado with Donny's family and some family friends. It was a blast. Very beautiful area, Ouray, Silverton, and Telluride. If you have never been there it is a gorgeous area. It was nice and rainy most the time. Which was a nice change from the heat around here. We hiked to a beautiful waterfall in the rain, got ADORABLE old-time pictures of our Tyler, and the other picture is of Donny and his Mom on top of the mountain, if you look close you can see the city of Telluride down below. They road the Gandola up there, a ski lift thing!

On August 14, I turned 24!! I didn't think I would feel old but I kinda do. Donny decorated the house with balloons and streamers. (Tyler loved the balloons) We went to the Utah County fair, and then ordered pizza. Invited my family over for cake and ice cream. Below is Donny's cake creation. Don't ask me why an Alien, but oh well it was funny!

SOLD!!! :( We finally sold our Bronco. This was Donny's car since he was 16. Lots of good times! But when we are lucky we got 10 miles to the gallon in this old beast, so it was time to sell it! Our neighbor bought it so we will still see it, just 2 parking spots down from ours. Its hard to see everyday, but it is good to see someone put it to good use, because we hardly ever drove it. We will miss our ol' Broncy!!

August has $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point! My mom, sister, nephew, son, and I went to the dinosuar museum. (I think we went the same day as you Lorina) It was CROWDED! We had to take turns taking pictures, be we got a few cute ones. Most had other peoples kids posing in our pictures, it was funny! Tyler and Dean had a good time!

CONGRATULATIONS DONNY!! Donny made it into the Marriot School of Business at BYU! He plans to major with business finance degree. I am so proud of him! He worked hard to get here! We are excited for him to start a program. Now we have an end in sight and it is very exciting!!

I picked up a new hobby, Couponing! Thanks to my friend Erin. She inspired me. You should check out her new blog iamfrugal.blogspot.com She has amazing deals and how to start into coupons and save money, lots of free stuff too! Right now we really need to save money so this has been great. I am just getting started but am quickly becoming a couponaholic ( so my husband thinks).

Well thats what we have been up to this month! Now we are just trying to get things in order before Donny starts school in a couple weeks. Life never slows down. But we are enjoying it! Hope to have a new up-date soon!

The many faces of Tyler

2008-07-26T14:05:00.000-06:00

The other day Donny and I were taking pictures of Tyler. Before my camera flashes it shines a light on the object you are taking a picture of. So in this case, Tyler's face. Every time the light went on he pulled a funny face. Take a look...

What a GOOFY boy!!

Pioneer Day!

2008-07-26T13:41:00.000-06:00

Donny had the 24th of July off so we spent the day with my sister and her family. First we rode our bikes up Provo canyon and had a picnic at a park, we came back to Emmalee's house and played games while the babies took a nap(or while Tyler played in the playpen and Dean napped), then the boys went swimming and we had a BBQ and went over to grandma and grandpa's to watch fireworks. Tyler jumped every time a firework went off but he never cried!! So that's good. We had a lot of fun.

Hiking!

2008-07-18T17:45:00.000-06:00

Donny and I hiked to Stewart falls with some friends, The browns. We didn't realize how out of shape Donny and I were, I kinda feel like a sissy. It was fun though! Donny carried Tyler on his back (thanks for letting us borrow your backpack Chels.) Art and Sierra both carried one of their kids on there back. I had to carry the camera, tough job eh?Tyler had such a relaxing ride, he fell asleep on the way back!

Tyler and Dean

2008-07-18T17:39:00.000-06:00

Dean, my nephew, is so sweet with his cousin Tyler. He is always sharing with him and trying to help him. Here is Dean trying to feed Tyler some strawberry banana puffs. He's a little more generous then I am. :) Tyler probably would have ate them all had I let him.

MISS UTAH

2008-07-18T17:13:00.000-06:00

Donny's sister Jackie was in the Miss Utah pageant last week. Sadly she didn't win but it was fun to go see her compete. She is very beautiful and talented. Its hard to pick just one of those 50 girls. Although some definitely try to hard! Pageants kinda have a strange crowd with to much perfume and to many high maintenance women but its fun to go.

Shannon, Penny, Taylor, Kim,Heather,Me, Justin, Donny, and Jackie!

Tag! Tag! Tag!

2008-07-16T22:33:00.000-06:00

So I was tagged 3 times in one week and all three were different. I am going to blend them together and then tag 3 people and you guys can do what you want with it! :)

What were you doing:

10 years ago- I was 13, I remember I had spent a week in the hospital with pnuemonia. best friends were Lorina Johnson, Kellie Burton, and Stephanie Taylor.

5 years ago- going to college, moved out for the first time, and bought a car! (which I still have and its getting old!)

3 years ago- actually 3 years ago this week I recieved a mission call to Knoxville Tennesee, and went thru the temple to recieve my endowment. (p.s. I never went on my mission, in case you didn't know, long story)

3 joys- Well My husband, my baby, and the gospel.

3 fears- That Tyler will choke(he eats everything!), that I will lose someone close to me, and spiders of course.

3 obsessions- with taking pictures for my blog, ice cream, I thought I was obsessed with throwing up, then i realized I was pregnant!

3 suprising facts- I've never been in a airplane, I was in labor for 25 hours, I don't really like chocolate

Husband Tag
1. What is his name? Donny
2. How long have you been married? 2 years 2 months
3. How long did you date before you were engaged? 5 months
4. How old is he? 24
5. Who eats more sweets? Me(isn't it obvious), he is not huge into sweets and always gets after me
6. Who said I love you first? Me, haha and I didn't mean to it came out so naturally I didn't even realize I said it until he said "how do you know?" AGH!!
7. Who is taller? Donny is 5 inches taller than me
8. Who can sing better? Not sure if he likes to sing more but he always has some random song to sing every morning.
9. Who is smarter? Donny!
10. Who does the laundry? ME ME ME
11. Who pays the bills? We both do
12. Who sleeps on the right side? Depends if you are in it Donny does, if you are looking at it I do!
13. Who mows the lawn? The landscaping company
14. Who cooks dinner? I usually do, but he does when I have other plans
15. Who drives? Always Donny, but only since we were married.
16. Who kissed who first? Donny kissed me, but i kissed him back!
17. Who asked who out first? He asked me but I turned him down so I asked him!
18. Who proposed? Donny, although the weather didn't help him out any. It was like a really romantic date gone bad. Fun memories though!
19. Who has more siblings? We both have the same, we each have 1 sister and 4 brothers
20. Who wears the pants? I think we both wear skirts, we would do anything for each other (although donny wouldn't ever admit to wearing a skirt)
I love you Donny!!!!

I tag... Amber Bryce, Ashley Starker, and Erin Pettingill!!!

Memories!

2008-07-16T22:08:00.000-06:00

I though this might be fun!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.I think it's fun to take a trip down memory lane, and it's always good to have a laugh or smile about the past. So leave a comment and I'll do the same for you.:)

LIFE!

2008-06-20T12:17:00.000-06:00

It feels like summer just began. Donny finished his finals yesterday. YIPPEE! Now we are done with school until August. I wish we could be done forever but not yet. Although he still has to write a essay and send in his application to the Marriott school. Cross your fingers that he can make it in. We should find out mid July. If not who knows were life will take us. I have been dying to go camping but we haven't had any time yet. We were able to go up to Tibble Fork and go canoing the other day. That was fun but I still wanna go camping. We have a family reunion in about 2 weeks, I guess I'll have to wait until then. Tyler is crawling everywhere. Its so fun to see him learn new things. Well we aren't up to a whole lot but thats a little update.

Canoing!

2008-06-20T11:40:00.000-06:00

We went canoing up American Fork canyon
at Tibble Fork Reservoir, with my sister and
her family.

Here is Donny and Ty, hangin out on the side
of the lake.

Dean playing in the lake with a canoe paddle.

This is My sister Emmalee, Her son Dean, and
my brother-in-law Rob, waving as they go out
on the lake.
Dean loved the boat ride, or as he would say
"boat wide! boat wide!"

If you look close you can see a moose crossing
the lake.

Tyler, Dean, and I made friends with the little
squirels, by feeding them some of Tylers treats.
Tons of them came to eat them. They came
right up to our feet.

Sleepy boy!

2008-06-20T11:25:00.000-06:00

Tyler is so funny. When he is tired he will fall asleep almost anywhere. Sometimes in the funniest positions. I would be surprised if he didn't have a kinked neck all the time. Here are a couple pictures of him asleep in funny places. The first one is at my sisters on her couch, he just bent over and fell asleep. the other one, i was in the other room and it was really quiet, when I came out to see what Tyler was up to I found him asleep in his walker. So sweet. I felt bad waking him up to put him in his bed.

Family reunion!

2008-06-07T14:01:00.001-06:00

Donny's side of the family had a reunion down in St. George this week. We went to the temple visitor center, toured Brigham Young's house. We stayed in a really nice condo resort thing. Tyler and I went swimming and stuff while Donny and others went down to Zions National Park. We also went 4-wheeling. We had fun but wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to rush home so Donny could take a test! bummer! But he got 100% so I guess it was worth it.

Most of Donny's immediate family and us at the St. George temple.

Here is Tyler chewing on his toy frog. Its his favorite toy. He thinks its a binky.

This is Donny's grandma. Notice the squirrel right next to her foot.

Donny's brother is picking plants when Donny notices a sign "CAUTION: poison ivy"! Oops!

THE ZOO!

2008-06-07T13:38:00.000-06:00

My friend Chelsey and I brought our kids to the zoo. It was a nice day and we had lots of fun!

Tyler sticking his tongue out.

Ty loved the ride in the stroller he was so excited he kept kicking and flapping his arms.

This is Chelsey's new baby Norah. She mostly slept and ate, oh and cried. Isn't she cute?

I love this picture. Ty makes a small turtle but a cute one!

A couple of Monkeys!

Chelsey and her daughter Madaline.

Ty and the famous white alligator. I don't think he was to sure what to think about it.

More of May!

2008-06-07T13:18:00.001-06:00

??????

So my husband asked what he could do to help with dinner. I handed him a green pepper and asked him if he would cut it up. :) I guess I should have been more specific. This is just a small taste of Donny's sense of humor!

cake!

A while back I told you my friend wanted me to make her son a motorcycle birthday cake. Well she later informed me that she was inviting 30 kids and would prefer if it was in cupcakes. Talk about complicating, but I thought it turned out pretty cute!

Sharing!
Here is Sadie feeding Tyler her cupcake. He was going nuts!

Swinging!

I think this picture is just cute! Ty loved the swings.

Our garden!
I wasn't sure how we could do a garden with out a yard but I thought I would try this. Its alot of fun and our plants have already tripled in size since this picture. We have a tomato, zucchini, and cucumbers. and of course, Flowers!

Memorial Day!
Here is Dean and Tyler at the cemetery. Visiting my Aunt Margaret's grave. She died when I was 8 of Lupus. She was only 22 years old. I miss her!

Walking!
This is my dad and nephew going on a walk. I just thought it was a super cute picture.

Some of May!

2008-06-07T12:51:00.001-06:00

Crawling

Tyler is learning to crawl. He has started going forward now, but at first he could only go backwards. He would end up under all kinda of things. This is him under the stroller.

Mothers Day!

We gave my mom some mixing bowls for Mothers day! We thought they worked better as hats! What do you think?

Grandma's house

Donny's mom babysat Tyler, while we went over night for our anniversary. Tyler is wearing grandma's Pluto slippers!

2 YEARS!

We had our 2 year anniversary on May 13th. We went over night out to Vernal. This is us at the dinosaur museum. Its pretty cool.

Flood

It was raining really bad one day and our river outside our condo over flowed. Luckily no condos flooded. This is how the river usually looks!

Graduation!

My younger brother Andrew graduated from CEU. So, I made him a cake. If you can't tell what it is, its a couple books with a graduation cap on top.

Update on April!

2008-06-07T12:28:00.000-06:00

So I finally gave up on my internet. We've had people come look at it and no one can figure out whats wrong. So I brought all my pictures to my parents and I'm going to use there internet, which has got me be faster than mine. I'm going to put a lot of pictures on with a little description. I will start with what we did in April.

Missionaries

This is Donny's little brother Kyle, he left on his mission to Independence, Missouri. He is determined to be Tyler's favorite uncle even while he is gone for 2 years.

Prom

This is my little brother Matt. His first Prom. Isn't he a stud??!!

At the park

My nephew Dean and Tyler! We went to the park to feed the ducks. Dean doesn't look like he's having fun, but he really was!

Buddies!

This is Tyler and his buddy, Dallen Bryce. They are about 2 1/2 weeks apart. Dallen just moved to Arizona at the end of April. We are gonna miss him and his parents!

Technical difficulties!

2008-05-12T13:16:00.000-06:00

If you are wondering why I haven't updated my blog for a while I do have a good excuse. I am really upset with my internet company. Last month on Apil 21st all the condos in our complex had a "internet upgrade" well since then, our internet is so incredibly SLOOOW!!! It takes about 20 minutes to upload one page(not exagerating). We have had a few people come and look at it and all we get is that it must be our computer. Kind of a strange coincidence that our computer and internet was working just fine before this so called upgrade! So we are still trying to get it to work faster, wish us luck! Then I will be able to post some pictures. I have alot and I want to show you all, but I guess now is not the time.

P.S. Our fish had babies, only 3. But sad news is they didn't even make it one day. We think its because she was such a young fish. Well we bought 4 new ones. We named them, Sammie, Alf, Julie, and Flo. Random I know, but we enjoy naming our fish.

I am going to publish this now and pray it works with out a picture, cause it wouldn't with one! Here it goes........

Cakes

2008-04-16T13:41:00.000-06:00

So I started this blog and have never added anything since the first day. I thought its about time I write an up date. Hopefully I can get the hang of this. I love reading everyone elses blogs but mine is probably pretty boring. I'm sorry everyone.

A girl in my ward made some beautiful cupcakes for a relief society activity. She told me how she make them so I made my own bouquet for my friends baby shower. It was way easy and I had so much fun that I decided to take a cake decorating class. The picture below is my first cake I made in class. I put Jackie, because she babysat Tyler while I was in class. She is a great sister in law! Then yesterday I made these clown cakes. Aren't they fun! I think they are really cute but way to much frosting to eat! These are anything but professional but I am having alot of fun learning. My friend asked me if I would make her sons birthday cake, he wants a motorcycle cake. Haha, I told her yes, i think I'm crazy. We'll see if that works out. At least his birthday isn't for another month. I might have time to practice. I hope to get better soon. I apologize if the pictures are a little dark my camera broke so i am using the video camera to take pictures and IF it has a flash I have no clue how to use it. So sorry!

Our "other" kids

2008-04-05T09:30:00.000-06:00

Tyler loves our fish. We called them our children before we had Tyler so now they are his brothers and sisters. We have about 7 fish right now but soon to have more. Norma lee, our black and yellow stripped fish, is PREGNANT! She is a bumblebee cichlid. She carries the eggs in her mouth for bout 2-4 weeks. She doesn't eat during that time, the eggs will hatch in her mouth. Weird huh? We had to separate her from the other fish or they would eat the babies when they hatch. Its been about 2 weeks so we are expecting the babies any time. She can have anywhere from 5 to 25 babies. We are excited to be grandparents. haha.

Megan and Donny

2008-04-04T09:32:00.000-06:00