Personal Penguin

This is a self indulgent post. When Kyle was only a few days old a good friend gave him the book Your Personal Penguin, by Sandra Boynton. I loved it right away, and it soon became a favorite of Kyle's. At three months he would laugh and dance to the song that goes along with the book. Now he is almost 2 (best age so far in my opinion) he knows the words and sings along. I love it. 

Well now it is still a regular in the daily reading routine. But today, as I finished reading it to him I was overwhelmed with this emotional little feeling. Allow me to share this brilliant little book...

I like you a lot, you're funny and kind.

So let me explain what I have in mind...

I want to be your personal penguin.

I want to walk right by your side.

I want to be your personal penguin.

I want to travel with you far and wide.

Wherever you go, I'll go there too,

Here and there and everywhere and always with you.

I want to be your personal penguin from now on.

Now, lots of other penguins seem to do fine in a universe of nothing but ice.

But if I could be yours, and you could be mine, our cozy little world would be twice as nice.

I want to be your personal penguin.

I want to talk with you night and day.

I want to be your personal penguin.

I want to listen to whatever you say.

Look at these wings, so perfect to hold you.

I'd like to say again what I have already told you.

Let me be your personal penguin.

Imagine me, your personal penguin.

I want to be your personal penguin, from now on....please?

The illustrations are my favorite, and the song is so fun. I love everything about this book. I remember as I used to read it to the baby Kyle, I always sort of felt like he was MY personal penguin. We were a team, I had him and he had me. But today when I read it? I realized it is now me asking to be HIS personal penguin. He is already outgrowing his need of me all the time. It is now me longing to be with him day and night, listen to everything he says, and have his perfect wings hug me. He is my little sidekick and my best little friend, and I love it that way. It won't always be like this.  The older he gets the more I will become the one requesting to be the personal penguin.

We can only hope I don't get this reflective and emotional on every one of his birthdays. Good heavens. But gees, he is my favorite. 

Holiday Weekend

 After Thanksgiving we kept the party going. We put up TWO Christmas trees this year, which was big for me. We have two family rooms and I just couldn't decide which one deserved a tree...so thanks to a Black Friday deal they each get one. Kyle had SO much fun decorating the tree. He can't start the day now without making sure the lights are on. He has also been caught giving the ornaments "rocks" and high fives"...they are close friends I guess? My favorite is when we heard him say after his fist bump "rocks! rocks to my christmas tree!"

We also hit the BYU Women's soccer game with Kevin and Erin. It was intense! They lost after two overtimes, but Cosmo sat by us for a while so Kyle had a dream come true. He always looks from afar at football games and wants to get down to him so bad. When he showed up literally right next to us, all the kids seemed star struck. It was great.

Then on Saturday morning we were eating breakfast and last minute decided to head up to Heber to spend the night with my inlaws on their mission. We had SO much fun. The sled tied to the back of an ATV is seriously the most I have laughed in forever. Kyle had a blast, and we always love seeing Ryan's parents. So glad we got to go.

Now back to reality for a few more weeks I guess!

Thanksgiving

We had a great one! I hope you did too! Highlights.

• Hiked the Y with my Dad for the 11th time! In the last 14 years we have missed three for things like my acl replacement, being 39 weeks pregnant, and that time I was in Disneyland. It was a blast as always, though I swear steeper than I remember :)
• Delicious dinner at my parents
• Croquet for Ryan and my Dad
• Looking through ads while Ryan watched football
• BLACK FRIDAY shopping. Such an adventure. My mom made a great companion this year. We hit Toys R Us, Target and Walmart and still got home before midnight. Amazing. Call me crazy, I think its fun.
• Having Kyle ask for seconds on the corn, and coconut cream pie, naturally.

Staycation

Ryan had to got to go to San Diego to present at a conference. Though I was really excited for him, because it was sort of a big deal, I am never happy to see him go. But really, I was so excited he got to do it. Anyways, I decided to plan a staycation for Kyle and I. Here are a few highlights.

• Disney On Ice with my family
• Cafe Rio date with Kyle
• Dance parties in the humidifier
• Sleepover with cousins!
• Girls outing with a few sisters in law
• Getting new make up on said outing
• Visiting Amber and Mila in Logan
• Making turkey crafts with Grandma
• Lunch with Aunt Diane
• Kyle and I sharing a bed (only a highlight for Kyle)

The best part of all was really when Ryan called to say he was back and ready to be picked up. All the fun activities in the world don't really make up for his absence. No one fits in quite like him. We are so glad he is back! Thanks to everyone who entertained Kyle and I for a few days!

Family Date

A while ago we decided we wanted to go out and do something. We thought dinner would be fun, so we hopped on the freeway. On our way up we noticed that the new outlets at Traverse Mountain were having their grand opening...change of plans! We pulled up right as the fireworks started. It was such a fun night of shopping, a little snow, and being with my favorite people.

Thankful

I am very grateful for so many things, but this news has been topping my list lately.

We are so excited. I have SO many people close to me who struggle with all types of infertility. While I can't begin to understand their pain, and would never claim to even kind of truly understand, I hope I can be sensitive to them, and I feel so grateful for this gift we were given. I have learned from them to never take any part of pregnancy, or parenting for granted. We are so grateful. Now we are just working on making Kyle grateful, he sort of hates babies. Oh dear.

*picture taken by Amanda Peterson

The weekend

This past weekend was so great. Few things make me happier than snow, I was SO excited to see it start falling Friday morning. I knew it was just going to be a great little weekend. Highlights.

• The snow. Duh.
• Kyle playing in the snow for basically the first real time. He loved it. 
• A real live date with Ryan. Dinner AND a a movie AND great company. Dinner was yum, James Bond was great, and we always love hanging out with siblings sans children. 
• A Saturday morning deal at Old Navy. Half priced coats, and mini snow pants make me happy.
• Baking in the afternoon that made the house smell great.
• BYU football for Ryan Saturday night, Kyle and I decided it was too cold for us, but they won without us.
• Getting tons of Christmas shopping done without leaving my house.
• Playing in the snow as a family. We set out to build a snowman but Kyle only had eyes for the sled...and lucky for him he has a dad willing to pull him super fast. Such joy on Kyle's face...I couldn't capture the best of it because I was running along laughing all at the same time. SO much fun though.
• Delicious and different flavored roast for dinner on Sunday, with one of our favorite people as a dinner guest.
• We got out TV mounted on the wall finally thanks to Ryan's brother! It changed the whole room downstairs, I love it. And I love that Kyle can't touch it:)

It was a good one. They usually are. Sad to see Monday had to end it, but the party around here always finds a way of carrying on, thank goodness.

23

Another month, another list of favorites. I can't get enough of this boy. I recently told Ryan I think I would be ok with babies going from birth to two in a month. Not that I didn't love Kyle as a baby, but man. I LOVE this toddler thing. I have mentioned before how my transition to motherhood has not always been very smooth...had I known what a treat this phase was? Definitely would have been the light at the end of the tunnel for me. Here's what I like best right now:

• His little face. It has always been little, but it is just so sweet.
• His "singing face". He opens his mouth wide and shakes his head whenever a song has a long note...this comes out mostly on Sundays listening to the MoTab.
• He combs his hair while saying "I handsome, so handsome". And he is right.
• He has recently started sitting at the piano and sings while he plays. 
• He always says bless you when you sneeze, even if he is half asleep. Recently when he sneezed I forgot to bless him...he got in my face and yelled "bless me!"
• Every morning after he gets dressed and has his hair done he comes and poses for me and says "so handsome"...vain? But still right.
• He sings himself to sleep sometimes...his attempts at the ABC's are my favorite. He gets to about D, then makes random sounds and holds the last one out. Then he cheers for himself.
• He loves to do flips, dance, jump, or simply strike a pose and then say "taduhhhhh" and will keep saying it until he gets applause.
• He has a new love of clementines. He will eat as many as I will peel for him.
• He always eats all but one bite of his oatmeal in the morning. Without fail, the last bite never gets eaten.
• He always says "oh thank you much" unprompted when you do something for him. Love. 
• He loves to dance. That never changes.
• He has favorite songs and requests them regularly. These include..."ever ever" (We are never ever getting back together by T. Swift). "Skyfall" (Adele's new james bond theme song..Ryan is proud). "Woo woo song" (Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani). "style" (Gangam Style)
• He will do anything for chocolate milk
• On that note...I told him we were getting Ryan something special for Christmas and he looks at me so serious and excited and says "oh chocolate milk!?"...that would be the ultimate gift for him I guess.
• He loves to collect money. 
• He loves going to "Gamma and PaPa's house" to play.
• He loves to cook.
• He lives for days we play with friends. He used to be shy but is now quite social. Wants to be around people all the time.
• He loves nursery. He even begs to sit with his nursery teachers instead of us in sacrament meeting.
• He still loves to watch shows, but doesn't have any real favorites right now.
• He is really obedient.
• He is stubborn and has a one track mind...it is hard to talk him out of things.
• He loved playing in the snow! Especially sledding.
• He is a man who loves his nap. 
• He almost always uses full phrases and sentences now.
• He prefers picking out his own shoes from his drawer.
• He loves his books, and has his favorites.
• He often says things and then say "I funny"
• when he gets in trouble he comes over for loves right after.

Next month is birthday month. Get excited!

Photo Shoot

The other night Kyle handed my phone to Ryan and asked him to take a picture of him and Elmo together. Here are the results. Funny. 

Why Rexburg is cool

Rexburg is ripped on quite often. And while I can't say I am sad I will never be a resident there, it has some definite perks! Last weekend I went with Ryan's sisters/inlaws to visit another sister and her husband. I thought it was fabulous. Here's why.

• Best ice cream of my life...seriously why has no one ever put caramel in grasshopper ice cream before now? And so creamy.
• They have that magical chocolate milk with potato flakes in it. Seriously good, and seriously bad for you I am sure.
• Katie and Jeff live there. And they are some of my favorite people.
• Jimmer, their new dog is now there. I am not an animal lover but that little guy is too cute to handle. Holy smokes.
• The Marriott is quite nice. Good breakfast.
• They have a new DownEast clothing store...with a lot of Anthropologie stuff. I scored $300 boots for $35. Hello. They deserve their own post.
• Nothing is more than a few minutes away, and traffic was never bad.
• The temple is really pretty and wasn't too packed on a Saturday. Nice.
• You can go to a Saturday movie minutes before it starts and it isn't sold out.
• It feels cozy. The whole town.
• The ice cream. I'm telling you. I want more.
• You can see the Tetons on a clear day. (thanks Kate for pointing that out)

I had so much fun on our little weekend away. Katie and Jeff were nice to show us around, and Jeff was a good sport to hang out with five girls all the time. I love any excuse to spend a weekend eating delicious food and doing fun things, but Kate and Jeff really are some of my very favorite people, so seeing them was the best part (but maybe the ice cream...). So lay off Rexburg, it's cool yo. 

This is how we do it!

Remember how I LOVE Halloween? Well I love most holidays...but I so love this one. Here is a recap of our month of celebrations.

We started out with the annual Taylor Family party. I love it so much. There was delicious food,Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory apples, fishing and cousins!

Then there was a Lundgreen dinner we made some festive treats for. Cupcakes, ghost cookies, and pumpkin cheesecake!

Then we had the annual black and orange Lundgreen dinner with all the cousins dressed up!

Not all cousins are in the pic...

Then another time we carved and painted pumpkins for family night. So fun.

On the actual day of Halloween we started out the day with donuts, then decorated sugar cookies with Emmett (bff), then headed for some trick or treating at the mall (LOVED IT!!!), then had a relaxing night in sweats with pizza and the Wynn's were able to join for a bit! Thanks to Mel for the last minute football costume...is was much more comfortable to trick or treat in than the iPhone.

Not pictured: ward party where Kyle won the costume contest!

And that's a wrap! We so love Halloween, and its even better with cool Kyle. We loved watching Kyle have so much fun. The holidays have begun!!!

The longest run of my life...

So I have this good friend named Mike. I have talked about him on here before. Anyways, a while ago Mike started running, and expressed interest in doing a longer race, like a half marathon. I was so excited for him! But he kept not signing up for a race so I finally made him do it and said I would join him. I was excited to be a part of his first race!

So the day finally came and we hopped on the bus and headed for Sundance. It was 20 degrees when we arrived and we had THREE hours before the race started! Burr! It was fun to see everyone's costumes and get excited to start.

 (Robbers...Partners in crime...running like we stole something...)

The time finally came and we were off! Mike is about twice my height so I didn't plan on staying with him very long, and my shoe cam untied early so I sent him on his way. Well about mile 3 I started getting a migraine. I started seeing spots and losing my vision...by mile 4 is was pretty much gone and stayed that way for a bit...then it cleared up and I had a good mile...then the pain of the headache came along with the nausea. Holy mother. If you are a sorry soul who suffers from migraines you know the kind of pain I am talking about. Then I started throwing up...so I resigned to walk...I just wanted to keep going. The race wasn't well marked so I never knew how far I was...so I just kept hoping I was only a few miles away. At one point I considered just sitting down and calling for a ride...but I wanted to finish so badly so I pressed on. After about the third throw up stop the pain in my head lifted a bit taking it down to a "normal" headache. This was seriously a miracle. My migraines never get better without strong medication or sleep. Miracle. Anyways I was able to hobble into the finish...with by far my slowest time ever.

My family had started to try and call me and my Dad said he was about to head up the canyon looking for me because I was so much slower than usual. Poor Mike waited FOREVER at the finish line for me, I felt so bad! I was supposed to be his big support to finish this goal and I barely finished myself! But GO MIKE! He did awesome! I was so proud. I hope it is the first of many races for him. And hey, I wasn't the last one across the finish line!

It was definitely the longest run of my life, and by far the hardest. But I am glad I did it! I never regret a run. Thanks for getting me out there Mike!

 We did it!