Grandma Young

Before we lived in Tyson's parent's basement we lived in a house with an older couple that needed assistance. Tyson mowed the lawn and took out the trash while I cooked meals for them and cleaned the house. We were able to get free rent, free groceries, and $200 a month, helping tremendously with our financial situation.

Gloria and Laurie Young (we called them grandma and grandpa) were family. They made us laugh everyday as we ate dinner with them, spent time talking with them about the old days, watched their favorite TV programs with them (Matlock, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and Deal or No Deal).

Grandma Young passed away a few days ago and Tyson and I were able to attend the viewing along with my mom and dad (who had also visited them several times and made friends with them). My mom and I also went to the funeral the next day. Grandma had been slowing declining in recent months (she was 83 years old) and she finally decided it was time to pass on. But I know that she is in a better place now.

Tyson and I have several favorite memories of grandma. Like how she loved shrimp, but grandpa refused to try it. So one day I added some shrimp to the soup I made and grandma saw. She was so excited and when grandpa said, "What is this in my soup? Is that a shrimp?!" she was on my side and said, "No, it's just a potato!". Or when she would get sick of watching TV with Laurie so she would say,"I'll be right back, I'm just going to the bathroom." and an hour later grandpa would say, "Where'd grandma go?" to find that she was watering the plants, doing laundry, or cleaning out some drawers. Or when she would watch BYU games or Jazz games on TV and yell at the refs on TV (often several times for the same play because she had a hard time understanding that on TV they do instant replays). Or the story she tells us of when grandpa complained about the lunches she used to pack for him for work saying they were "uneatible", so the next day she packed him rocks for his lunch with a note saying, "Is this eatible?" Man, granmda was good!

So, this goes out to the sweetest old woman to ever leave this world. The one who would do anything to hold a baby for as long as she could. The one who always wanted to look good by getting her hair and nails done and be the best she could by being strong in the gospel. The one was always trying to help out as much as she could even when it was hard. The one who loved us just like she loved any of her children or grandchildren.

We love you Grandma Young.

Good Times

So, this is a blog of a bunch of randomness that went on this week. It's been all sorts of fun! It's been a good week. My niece, Eva, was blessed on Sunday and then we were able to see a bunch of family and friends at the Stratton's house later that day. Also, Eden just got her first tooth! Well, right now it looks more like a little hole in her gums with a little piece of white down below.

And here's more excitement...

We gave Eden a strawberry (definitely NOT one of our more brilliant ideas)...but BOY did she have a good time mashing it up and eating it!

This is when Macie, Kylie, and I attempted making bread without supervision. I was the only one who had made this bread before...and it had been a LONG time since I had made it. They had a lot of fun playing with the dough and trying to get it out of the bowl. It turned out good!

So, I like to put Eden in small, confined places. Oddly enough, she really enjoys being in them. She'll be grumpy and I'll put her in a small box with a toy or two and she'll play and play forever.

So, there's a little insight into my everyday life. Eden is just so incredibly adorable! She's interacting more than ever. She'll smile and clap when we say "YAY!", tonight she was imitating sounds we made in the car (yelling, spitting, "dada", "mama", etc.), and she knows what the phone is (she puts it on her shoulder and says, "eeoo", like hello or she'll mumble in the phone). She loves playing with balls, books, balloons, and lots of other toys. She'll hold as many things in her hand as possible. She also loves the vacuum and washer and dryer. I'm loving this stage of her life!

Leaps and Bounds!

So, the exciting news as of yesterday....Eden can officially scoot from one place to another. It's sort of an army crawl and she doesn't like to do it. She would much rather make sad faces and whine a little in hopes that someone just picks her up or gives her an item. But, she definitely can move!

The sad part, I took a video on my video camera and wanted to put it on my computer and on my blog...but of course my video camera is being a struggle and won't let me put it on my computer. Sad day.

In other Eden news...we went to the doctor for her 9 month appointment. We found out that despite the fact that she LOOKS like a chubby little kid...she's actually only about 35 percentile in weight. Her height is down to about 65 percentile (she used to be in the 90s). And her head...is huge. Her head is around the 95 percentile. My child is all head, I guess we'll just claim that she's smart. :)

Shannyn & Me

This is a Flashback Friday moment. Flashback Friday is an idea stolen from a person who stole it from another person...and now I shall keep up the tradition and steal it from them. Basically, I just write a blog on a Friday (such as today) about a memory from my past or a story about my ancestors.

I like to post pictures on my blog and since there are only a limited amount of pictures on my computer of me from the past...I guess I'll have to choose a memory based on one of those photos.

This was my best friend Shannyn from elementary school. In this picture we are eating ice cream without utensils. Shannyn if you ever see this blog and this picture...I'm sorry because its definitely not a flattering picture of either of us. She lived down the street from me but we went to different schools and different wards (our little circle that we lived on was split down the middle as the ward boundary). Everyday we called each other up and said, "Meet halfway", hung up the phone and met halfway down the street. Most of the time we would end up going to my house because our family has the (original) Nintendo, thus making my house the best place to go.

Back to the ice cream picture. One of my favorite memories with Shannyn was when the power went out on our block. We just kind of figured that since the power was out (despite the fact that it was the middle of the day during the summer) that it meant that it was dark enough that we could get away with things we wouldn't have if the power was on. So, while everyone was outside we snuck to the freezer, grabbed a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, hid under the table, and ate the ENTIRE box. We obviously loved ice cream.

And that's my Flashback Friday memory.

Parade of Homes

There is something about looking at homes that aren't my own of all shapes, sizes, and creativeness that absolutely thrills me! Tyson and I had a BLAST going through the St. George Parade of Homes on our vacation and the only thing that we regret is that we didn't think about taking a camera until we had gone through most of the houses already.

I mean, its amazing that people have the creativity (and money) to put everything from a rock climbing wall in your basement to a TV that pops out of the footboard of your bed to an outside shower connected to your master bath to fake trees that take over the walls and ceiling in your entryway to an entire floor dedicated to meditation. I mean, people really go all out when it comes to these things!

One house was HUGE where the basement had a basketball court, rock climbing wall, raquetball court, weight lifting area, cardio area, and a putting green. HOLY COW! Not to mention that the outside had a massive pool that was partially covered by a large cave that you could go in and watch a big screen TV or sit in the hot tub that was under a waterfall.

Tyson and I laughed at this one house that was decorated very "cowboy and indian" style. It wasn't the style that made us laugh (there were several houses decorated in this fashion), but the best part was that there were about 5 guys with MAJOR handlebar mustaches that were looking around saying, "This place is AWESOME!"

One house had an entire wall made of glass, a hallway with a display gallery inside the wall and two master bedrooms (which Tyson and I couldn't figure out). But the best part of that home was that there was a smaller kitchen area inside of the kitchen with a large ice cream bar!

Overall, Tyson and I just like thinking about what we like and want in a home someday (in our little bungalow that we plan to someday own). Tyson would love a separate garage for his tools and other "toys" and a washer and dryer in the master closet. I would love a really large pantry with a door that swings both directions and a large laundry room with lots of counter space that basically isn't JUST a laundry room....but seems like a room where you can do other things as well (crafts, wrap gifts, etc). There are of course several other things that we wanted...but those are the things that are coming to my head right now.

Below are a few pictures of some houses. Unfortunately we missed all the good houses of things to take pictures of...and where there are people everywhere and a camera that is getting old and sad...your pictures just don't do the homes justice.

Three Years

Alright, for those of you who don't know, my birthday is February 13...the day before Valentine's Day. All-in-all I've had had several problems with boyfriends who tend to combine the two events. (That kind of sounds selfish and high maintenance of me to say that and I really don't mind that much, but I do like at least a little celebration on both days.) Tyson is really good about trying to not combine the two. He's actually much more romantic and thoughtful than I am...here are our 3 birthday/valentines that we've had together:

Year 1 (while dating)
Valentines he did GREAT...in fact he gave me Valentines WEEK (as he called it). He gave me flowers, took me out to eat, spent lots of time with me, and basically pampered me for a week after. My birthday he gave me the book "How to Make Friends and Influence People". Which, I told him I like self-improvement books...so even though it may not be romantic, it was very thoughtful.

Year 2 (9 months married)
For my birthday Tyson gave me flowers, bought take out and he made a romantic picnic in our living room with rose pedals and candles everywhere. The next morning (Valentines) he surprised me by leaving me a note saying that he called my work previously and got the day off for me so we could spend it together. We mostly just relaxed and watched movies. It really was romantic and sweet.

Year 3 (this year)
For both my birthday and Valentines Day we were able to go to St. George to relax, spend time with each other, went to Parade of Homes, went out to eat a few times, went to a movie, drank Boba drinks, and just talked a lot. Something I loved about it was that we did fun things to celebrate both days but most of all, it was things that both of us really enjoyed doing and we really got to spend time together. That's what's important to me.

Tyson is super good about trying to be romantic and thoughtful for both my birthday and Valentines Day (much more than I am, I admit it) and I'm so lucky to have him for a husband.

Eden

Eden turns 9 months old tomorrow! HOLY COW! 9 MONTHS! So here's a little glimpse of what Eden is like nowadays...

• Eden loves eating everything...except mashed potatoes.
• She is unfortunately allergic to wheat (makes her break out).
• She walks really well when holding someone's hands.
• She sings and dances.
• She plays "peek-a-boo".
• She waves "hi" and "goodbye". You know she's OK and ready to leave the room or going to bed when you tell her to wave goodbye and she does it. If she doesn't want to, she won't wave.
  
• She has wicked awesome bedhead when she wakes up in the morning.
• She likes to play with balls, blocks, and little plastic action figures (little bit of a tom boy). She recently got a balloon that she LOVES.
  
• She says "mom" and "dad".
• She somehow manages to find anything close to her that she's not supposed to get a hold of and choose that as her favorite thing to play with and eat.
• She's loves cuddling and snuggling with her bedtime blanky.
  
• She's just the cutest little girl in the world!

These are some pictures of her hair when she wakes up in the mornings, the balloon she carries around EVERYWHERE that she got from a baby shower we went to, and a few short videos of Eden playing peek-a-boo. These are the cutest shot I could get...I think she was a bit distracted by other things in the first one, but she usually smiles and laughs too while playing. She's also funny cause sometimes if she doesn't want to put something over her head then she'll just put her head down and closes her eyes. The second one is right after naptime and I was coming to get her.

My Family

This weekend I was able to go up to Salt Lake and see my family. This isn't an unusual event. Tyson and I go visit them almost every other weekend at least and almost all of my family comes for Sunday dinner (well, those that live in the Utah). But it sometimes SEEMS like forever since I've seen them because they are fun. Mostly we get together, eat dinner, playing games, use lots of sarcasm, and laugh a lot. It's wonderful times.

This is a introduction to my family...

Emily is my oldest sister. She's married to Kelly and has 6 kids Michael, Cory, Paul, Ty, Rhett, and Anika. Their family lives in California. She's good at art, design, and making good food with extremely little amounts of fat.

This is second oldest sister, Becca. She's married to Shawn and they have two kids, Brayden and McKell. She laughs a lot, is really nice to everyone, and has two of the funniest kids ever.

Laura is third in the family. She is married to Eric and have a baby boy named Trey who just learned to walk (and has the scars on his face to show that he's definitely still "learning"). Laura is the blunt and honest but she's also really outgoing and fun-loving.

Nate is the one and only boy in the family. I don't have a picture of his entire family together (that shows you how much he LOVES getting his picture taken). But he's married to Sayuri and they have 3 kids: Kenji, Hideki, and Miriana. They live in South Carolina. Nate is really good at business, speaks fluent Chinese, and is proud to admit that he was the one to teach me the "perfect" baseball stance, how to dribble under my legs, and how to throw a good punch.

Alyssa is next in line. Her husband is Ben. They are the "unique" ones of the family. Ben works as a technical writer and Alyssa loves the culinary arts. They collect hats and keep them all around their house. And I don't think you can get a picture of the two of them where they are making a normal smiley face (as seen in this picture). Alyssa and I have always had lots of great adventure growing up because we are the closest in age and it's always been great times and great memories.

That is my family and I love them!

Dancin' Queen

Eden is almost 9 months old!!! I can't believe how time flies! Her latest trick is that she learned to dance. I'm not sure how unless I unintentionally dance like this often without noticing. Who knows...maybe I do! She will sometimes sing while dancing too. It's so cute! It's hard to get video of her dancing because when she sees the camera she gets a little camera shy.

Here are 2 little video clips I was able to get today. This little globe that makes music and tells little facts about the world is one of her FAVORITE toys. You gotta watch it to the end cause she really gets into the dancing, which she sometimes does but I of course can't get it on video for the life of me! The second video is her on another one of her favorite toys, a horse statue. If I sing then she'll dance. I love my little girl!

Our Bungalow

Tyson came home a while ago and said, "I think we should get a bungalow when we get a house." (Meaning, "After I've finished getting my bachelor degree, go to medical school, get a job, have paid off our medical school debts, and start looking for a house of our very own...we should get a bungalow.") I'm still not sure what the definition of a bungalow is...but we like the basic style of a place that is simple, cozy, not too big or too little, clean looking (not too much stuff everywhere), and Tyson's favorite "utilizes the space efficiently".

We looked at different pictures online and the bungalow above was my favorite. So, perhaps one day...long down the road...we may get our very own bungalow.