Whoa!

So, we bought our new carpet! I am so excited. We purchased it from a company called Carpet Direct. They don't have a showroom so they are way cheaper than anywhere else we've looked, including places like Home Depot and Lowe's. And it's much better quality of carpet - Stainmaster! It's being installed on June 17th. So, if anyone wants to lend us a hand moving out of our house and back in all in the same day, we'd love the help. HaHa! Anyway, the funny thing about this is when the guy came last night to show us the carpet, Lexi and Myra immediately began climbing all over the carpet. It was so funny. It's like they had never touched such nice carpet in their whole life - which is probably true. I'm sure they'll love it once it's in.


My girls continue to amaze me. Today I took Myra to the doctors for a suspected bladder infection. As I was checking in, I can hear Myra bombarding this woman with questions. What is your baby's name? How old is your baby? What's your name? Where's your mom? Where do you live? Are you a kid? I find that people kind of shy away from talking to people they don't know. Even kids. Myra is an exceptionally outgoing little girl. Whenever we got to the store, she will talk to almost anyone we pass. Usually asking them their name. Then she'll introduce herself as MyraJaneKeyser. They never understand her. It's so funny. Anyway, back to the doctors. Once I'm done checking in, I sit next to the girl Myra was talking to and we start up a conversation. Then when we were called back Myra says to her, "Bye kid." Then the nurse greets us and asks Myra how she is doing and she loudly pronounces, "I have a sore bum." She's so funny. Haha!

Now on to the big Whoa of this blog post. Lexi is walking. As Myra says, "Lexi is totally walking." She's right. For the past week or so, we've noticed Lexi preferring to try and take a few steps before she gets down and crawls. And it continues to progress every day. Now she is walking all over the place. She can stand up on her own and off she goes. She still has a lot of spills, but it's so amazing to see her tottering around. I had a really hard time taking a video of her walking. She just didn't want to "perform" for the camera. So, this is the best I could get.

Thank you Government

So, with the nice "Stimilus Check" the government sent out, we put it to good use. We put in tile in our kitchen and entry way and will be putting in new carpet sometime in the next few weeks. It is such a nice change to have tile instead of carpet in the kitchen. Especially when Lexi throws her plate of food on the floor, which happened just this afternoon. Unfortunately, plates break much more easily on tile than carpet. Anyway, I have to Thank Doug and Natalie for all of their help with the tile. Doug came up last Friday and Saturday to help Chad put in the tile. It was such a huge job. I'm sure he'll never want to lend us a hand on anything every again. :-) And thanks to Natalie for letting him come up and letting Myra, Lexi and I stay with her. We had a fun time with her and James...Playing, Shopping, eating ice cream and wondering how far along the boys were with all their hard work. :-) Here are some pictures of the kitchens transformation.

While I was down in the Salt Lake area, I made my first visit to Ikea - Very cool store! Anyway, I bought a new desk that would fit in our kitchen. We decided we wanted to move the computer out of our room. Yesterday I put it together all by myself. Although Myra tried really hard to help. She kept asking if I was done yet. Once I finished and had the desk in place, Myra ran upstairs and came down with pencils to put in the drawer and then proceeded to stuff her toys and stuffed animals on all the shelves. She was so excited about it. I wished I'd thought to take a picture before we cleared it off to set the computer up on it. So, here's a picture of the new desk. Hopefully soon I'll be able to post some pictures of our new carpet. :-)

Crazy Dresser

Lately Myra has really been into dressing herself. I wish I had pictures of all her strange clothing combinations. Usually she puts on a dress with a pair of pants underneath. Here are a couple of funny pictures I have of her. The middle picture is of her wearing a pair of Lexi's pants. She was very insistent that they were hers. We had quite a time trying to get them off her since they were so tight.




Time has been flying by for us lately. We have all been very busy. Chad's done with his classes, but summer time is the busy time of year for his job. (It's when all the Crickets are out.) He is also working on writing his Thesis and preparing for his Master's exam this summer. I've been busy preparing for the Gardener's Market this summer. I have a huge inventory now. I went last Saturday. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but that's the way it is with the Market. I've continued to do well with my Online store. Myra continues to amaze us with the things she says. She is so much fun. She's especially enjoyed the good weather. She has a great time playing outside and going for walks. Lexi is growing quickly, just not in size. She is still under 18 lbs. However, she is so close to walking. It's all come about pretty quickly. Yesterday and today she tries to walk before she crawls. It's so cute. I'll have to get a video of it put on here soon. Also, we are working on doing some new things in the house this summer. We've slowly been painting each room. This Saturday, Chad and Doug are going to put in Tile in our kitchen. And hopefully soon after that, we'll get new carpet throughout the house. Yeah! We are so excited. Well, here are a few more pictures we've taken recently. Aren't we such a cute family?



Here's a video of Myra running through the Sprinklers. She was so funny about it. The first time when she came outside and saw the Sprinklers on, there was no hesitation, she just ran right through it.

Birthday Parties, Mother's Day and ABC's

On Saturday, Myra turned 3. We had a fun birthday party for her at a local park. We BBQ'd Chicken and played Frisbee, Croquet, Bocce and some other fun lawn games. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground. And luckily, the weather was perfect! We had been a little worried because all week it said it may be cold and rainy on that day, but the sun was shining brightly and only in the shade was it a little cool. We had a great time with all of our friends and family that came. Although it was for Myra's birthday, most of the people that came were our friends. We've decided that we'll have a big "friend" birthday party for Myra next year. And the only person Myra really wanted to come was her best friend, Camille. They had a great time together, opening presents and eating cake. We took so many pictures, I decided to do a slideshow.

Sunday was Mother's Day. I just want to mention how great it is to be a mother. I love my kids so much. It is such a blessing being a Mom! Mother's day was a nice quiet affair. Chad fixed me his favorite dinner, Steaks. I was spoiled by not having to fix dinner and I not having to change any messy diapers. I even got to take an uninterrupted nap! The girls and Dad gave me the new Stephenie Meyer book - The Host, a cd, and exercise equipment. (I wonder what that was implying?) It was a great Mother's Day! Thanks to my loving family.



I have a lot of pictures and videos that we have taken lately that I want to post, but I'm going to try to spread them out over the next couple of days. Myra and Lexi just do so many amazing things I want to share with the world.
This video is of Myra displaying her lovely vocal abilities. Chad says she takes after him, but I see some potential there. She loves singing. She always seems to have a tune in her head.
And we were pretty impressed with how well she knows this whole song.



Oh and as a little side note, I just sold my 200th item on Etsy today. Hurray!

♫ ♪ Happy 3rd Birthday Myra ♪ ♫

I can't believe it's been 3 years since our wonderful Myra came into our lives. She has been such a joy to us. She brightens every day and makes everything so much fun. We love her so much. This past year has been a year of so much growth for her. She has become such a smart little girl. She likes to do everything herself lately. Especially getting her own snacks out of the cupboard. She loves to play with and feed her sister. She loves playing with "her" dog, Nena. She loves to cuddle with her Mama and roughhouse with her Daddy. She has just recently started asking What and Why lately. Here's an excerpt from a conversation I had with her this morning.

Setting: I had put on a movie for Myra to watch while I took a quick shower. As I was showering, Myra came in and this is the conversation that ensued:

Myra: What are you doing?
Mommy: I'm taking a shower?
Myra: Why?
Mommy: Because I needed to shower?
Myra: Why are you showering?
Mommy: I needed to get clean?
Myra: Why are you in the shower?
Mommy: Because I need to take a shower and get ready for the day.
Myra: Why are you showering?
Mommy: Is your movie over?
Myra: No
Mommy: Why don't you go finish watching it while I finish my shower?
Myra: Why are you in the shower?
Mommy: (Sigh) Just go watch your movie.
Myra: Ok, but don't take my cheese away.
Mommy: What cheese?
Myra: My cheese?
Mommy: Where did you get cheese? (As I hurry and finish my shower, a little alarmed.)
Myra: Don't take it away.
At this point I finish my shower, hurry and get dressed and go downstairs to find out that Myra had fixed herself a piece of cheesecake. She had even gotten out a plate to put it on. She ever so politely asked me to put some cherries on it. I'm pretty sure the fridge was locked before I started my shower. What do I do with her? Actually, I find myself loving and enjoying her more and more every day. Especially when she throws her arms around me, kisses my cheek and says, "I love you Mama. We're best friends." Life can't get any better than this!
Happy Birthday Myra!

Training Cinderella

I thought that since tomorrow is Myra's Birthday, I really needed to get this out.

This is a movie/documentary that I made with the girls one night while Shannon was at work.

We made this a few months ago but I had a hard time finding time to do the editing (Originally I wanted to make it a music video, but this is all I have time for).

I hope you enjoy, I cut a lot out but it is still kind of long, sorry about that.

Note: No children where hurt in the filming of this video :)

May 1st

What gives? It's May 1st and this is what we woke up to.











When will we ever get a break? I am so ready for nice weather! Please!



So, this week has been a little crazy. Both Myra and Lexi have been sick with the flu. They are doing mostly better now, but the past few nights we have had to get up repeatedly to soothe two sad kids. Needless to say, we've both been pretty tired.
Chad finished up this semester with one final on Monday. Hurray! Hopefully that will be the last class he has to take. He stayed up all night long Sunday studying and so the sick kids have not helped him get caught up on his rest. But, he's such a trooper. I have a hard time functioning without enough sleep, but it doesn't seem to bother Chad too much.
Today I have been reminiscing about how last year on this date we brought Lexi home after her 37 day stay at the hospital. She weighed just 4lbs. 12oz. It's so hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since then.To celebrate, we headed back to the Hospital. To the Emergency Room to be exact. While I wasn't looking today, Myra got into a bottle of Children's tylenol and drank the rest of the bottle. (It was ¼ to ½ full.) I can't blame her, the grape flavor is really yummy. :-) And so much for child-proof caps. After calling her pediatrician, he said to take her to the ER. She cried the whole way there because she didn't want a shot. Once there, they made her drink charcoal while she got to watch a movie. We have to go back up in a little bit to have her blood checked. Hopefully everything will look good. The moral of this story...If you drink really yummy grape flavored medicine, you get to go to the hospital and watch tv while drinking a yummy root beer flavored drink. The ER staff may even promise you a popsicle and a sucker. Hmmm, I hope this doesn't happen again!

Well, if it isn't one thing, it's something else, right?

Chad's Birthday

I just wanted to post a video and a picture from Chad's birthday. We celebrated the evening by going to our Ward service party. It was fun. We were able to talk to a lot of people and we helped open boxes of school supplies so they can be put together in little kits later on. That night we had Strawberry Shortcake. The kids were so helpful while putting the candles on the cake. Of course Myra wanted to help. She enjoyed putting the candles on the cake. Lexi was sitting on the counter while we were doing this and for some reason she kept putting Chad's cell phone on the cake. (Good thing there was no frosting.) Then when I started to light the candles, Myra immediately began blowing them out. She did this a couple of times before we were able to explain to her that it was Dad's cake and she couldn't blow out the candles. She loves birthdays. She's going to be so excited when it's her birthday. Chad seemed to enjoy his birthday presents, especially the BlowDart Gun. What was I thinking? Anyway, it was a fun birthday.

☼ Happy Birthday Chad ☼

Happy 29th Birthday Chad! You sure are getting old! :-) I just want you to know how much the girls and I love you. I am so glad to have you as part of my life. You truly are my best friend. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and father. Happy Birthday! We love you!
♥Love, Shannon, Myra and Alexys

Earth Day

With earth-day having just passed and all the noise we hear daily on the subject I thought I would add my little voice to the fray.

I love this comic strip!

Joseph Smith used these words to describe the religious fervor of his time. “In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?”

Similar sentiments are probably felt by many towards the environmental clamor we are currently experiencing. The tactics employed by many environmental enthusiasts have been so offensive, loud, and ridiculous; I doubt I am the only one who has disagreed with their motives based solely on their appalling behavior. Recently things have become slightly more civil and reasonable, yet a large amount of doom and gloom is still preached, and contradicted, leaving us in the same confused situation.

I recently read a quote by Elder Neal A. Maxwell that helped me come to terms with the environmental issues. He said,

“This restored work not only involves the things of eternity but is also drenched in daily significance. True disciples, for instance, would be consistent environmentalists— caring both about maintaining the spiritual health of a marriage and preserving a rain forest; caring about preserving the nurturing capacity of a family as well as providing a healthy supply of air and water... Adam and Eve were to 'dress the garden', not exploit it. Like them, we are to keep the commandments, so that we can enjoy all the resources God has given us, resources described as 'enough and to spare (D&C 104:17), if we use and husband them wisely.” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, A Wonderful Flood of Light, p. 103)

I realized that it does not matter whether global warming is real, or if the weather patterns are changing. This earth is Gods creation and as stewards we have a responsibility to respect and care for it.

Hugh Nibley said “We have taught our children by precept and example that every living thing exists to be converted into cash, and that whatever would not yield a return should be quickly exterminated to make way for creatures that do” (Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, p.4).

As a family we have decided to change some of our habits we think may be too wasteful. We are doing this not because of media pressure, because we think we can save the planet, or even to save money (of course that wouldn’t hurt), but rather because we feel it is one more way we can show our love for God.

“The very object of our existence here is to handle the temporal elements of this world and subdue the earth, multiplying those organisms of plants and animals God has designed shall dwell upon it. When we have learned to live according to the full value of the life we now possess, we are prepared for further advancement in the scale of eternal progression-- for a more glorious and exalted sphere.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:168)

Every individual is in an unique situation, and therefore must decide for themselves how much they are able to do. Remember “…it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength”, do what you can. I hope this has not been too preachy; my intention was to perhaps share an alternate view to all the noise we are daily bombarded with. If you’re looking for a place to get started here is a website Shannon and I enjoyed going through the other day and picking out a few new thing we wanted to do.