More Randoms

Here are a few random pictures that I've taken since being back in Mexico:
Kylee likes to do her own hair...

And pick out her own outfits...
(When we are going out in public, I usually only let her pick out part of her outfit.)

And apparently she likes trying my clothes on too.

Just a warning: You may think that I'm a really bad mom after reading this! This is what happens to Kylee when Mommy takes cold medicine...

I have no idea what the deal is with me taking medicine & having crazy side effects. I took some OTC cold medicine (although we are in Mexico, so maybe this shouldn't have been over-the-counter!) and was SO loopy. I realized that Kylee had made a huge mess, which included coloring on herself with markers & painting her own nails! The sad part is that when I saw it, I just sat Kylee on my lap & watched tv with her until Linc came home and cleaned everything up. I also vaguely remember sitting against the wall in my pj's staring at Lincoln & his friend while they were studying. So weird & embarrassing. I definitely won't be taking it ever again! :)

And here's a cute picture of Kirtlyn, Thomas & Hyrum with Hallux...

A few other random things:

Kylee is now putting herself in time-out. She makes sure to tell me why she is punishing herself. This may sound like a dream come true for a mom, but I'm convinced that Kylee just wants time-out to be her idea instead of mine. I was totally like that as a kid, so I guess it's payback time for me!

I am taking piano lessons from my friend Kim. I've had 3 lessons now. I'm surprised how much I don't know about music, even though I was in choir all through junior high & high school. I spend a lot of time practicing, but the results will hopefully be well worth it!

Lincoln's mom bought me a sewing machine for my birthday! She also gave me lots of sewing supplies. I've yet to use it, but I'm gathering a project portfolio, so hopefully I'll have some projects to show off soon!

That's it for now!

Chapala, Mexico

A few months ago, Bro. Herrerra (from our ward) invited us & the Powell's to go to Chapala with him sometime. Well, we finally took him up on his offer & went today. It was an hour drive & was such a fun place to spend the day! 

With Brother & Sister Herrerra when we first arrived...

Lake Chapala is HUGE. There was a pier that we walked out onto that looked out over the water & had paintings of the history of the town...

Kylee looking at the lake...

They offer boat rides there that tour the lake...

Our boat was named "Wendy"...

Group picture:

Our driver, the Powell's & the Herrera's...

Enjoying the wind blowing through our hair :) ...

Kylee was a little scared, so she sat on my lap & cuddled with me for most of the ride. I loved it!

We went around an island that had this big cross on it. It reminded me of Nacho Libre. Ha ha.

There was a restaurant on the island, and also little houses where the fishermen live during part of the year...

Kylee pointing to something in the water...

I LOVE this picture...

After the boat ride, we walked to a seafood restaurant to eat lunch. Verenice & I saw this "statue". When we realized that he was real, we had to take a picture with him...

Elijah & Kylee playing on the playground inside the restaurant...

Kylee learned how to walk up the slide by herself. We were actually proud of her, since she usually never goes on play equipment without Linc or I....

Our yummy lunch: Cheese, shrimp, pepper, onion & octopus in tortillas. Do you see the little suctions on the octopus tentacle? :)

After lunch, we ended our trip with some really good nieve. As we were walking up to our truck, I saw these two boys wrestling in the street. This kid was trying to blindfold the other one & wrestle him to the ground (joking, of course) & gave me a big smile when he realized that I was taking his picture...

When we took the Herrera's home, they informed us that a drug cartel member had been executed on the corner of their street a few days ago. The house across the street from them was boarded up by the government because it was a drug trafficker's house. Awesome.

Meet Hallux...

Well, it's been 4 months since Duke died. We still miss him A LOT. We hadn't planned on getting another dog for a few years, until we were back in the United States...but after seeing how lonely & sad Daisy has been these past few months, we decided to go ahead & get a puppy.

We wanted a male schnauzer puppy, as young as we could find. We went to one pet store, then stopped by our vet's office to see if they had any other pet stores to recommend. Linc told them what we were looking for & they informed us that they had an 8-week-old male schnauzer puppy at their office for sale! When they brought the puppy out, I knew we didn't stand a chance. He is so C-U-T-E!!!

We brought him home on Tuesday. We named him Hallux, which means "big toe" in Latin. Guess who named him? :) Apparently when Linc worked at the pathology office in Phoenix, he was doing some work on a black & gray toe that had been amputated from a diabetic. The label said "right hallux" & Lincoln didn't know what it was. He looked it up & decided that "hallux" would be a cool name for a dog. So...Hallux it is! (I guess the gray & black part is just a coincidence. Or this dog's name is really meant-to-be! :) )

He is so little & has the biggest eyes & such a cute hairy face!

Our plan for finding Daisy a friend kind of backfired at first. She was NOT happy to have another dog in her house. I think Kylee was afraid that Daisy was going to eat him...

I love this little guy...

So does Kylee...
 (Although she doesn't like when he chews on her toys or nibbles at her feet!)

(That's marker on her face, by the way.)

After taking the above pictures, I turned around to see this:

Daisy in a planter, staring at me with a defiant look...

We still adore you Daisy!

Hanging Out

Our next-door neighbors & friends, the Whitaker's, stopped by after we got home from AZ. Montse & the boys had been gone for 4 months, so it was fun to see them again! Kylee likes having Eric & Ian right next-door to play with...

We took a walk to the pine tree park the next day, to see how green everything had gotten while we were gone. Kylee sported some new headbands on the walk...

Back with Daddy at our favorite park!

Kylee asks us to stop at almost every tree stump & slab of cement, so that we can sit on it with her...

[Trying to] walk Daisy...

That night we met the Whitaker's & Powell's at Andares Mall to eat dinner & let the kids play in the fountains. Kylee had a lot of fun...

Soaking wet...

Flying Back to Mexico

We flew back to Mexico last Thursday. This time it was just Kylee & I, which proved to be interesting. We were being cheap & took all carry-on luggage, which proved to be a problem on the way home. I was carrying two carry-on suitcases, a duffel bag, a backpack & two of Kylee's stuffed animals...plus trying to get Kylee to our gate in time. All I can say, is THANK GOODNESS for wonderful strangers who helped me out! The man standing behind me helped me at the security checkpoint. A lady left her gate & walked me to mine while helping me carry all of my stuff. A couple carried all of my luggage onto the plane & put it in the overhead compartments, then waited until everyone got off the plane when we landed & carried my luggage to customs. An airline worker carried Kylee through the first customs line for me. Another airline worker helped me move my bags through the second customs line, & showed me how to stack my luggage so I would have a free hand to help Kylee. :) There were 2 more people who helped me, who I can't remember now... but that day I counted 9 people who voluntarily went out of their way to help me. It really was amazing & made me feel so thankful for kind people who think of others. I definitely learned my lesson & will be checking my bags the next time we fly though!

Anyway, I brought fun treats & new toys, & amp;anything else that I could think of, to keep Kylee entertained. She still threw a few tantrums, but I survived. :) This was Kylee's first trip on an airplane & she loved it. When the plane took off she'd say "Zoom!" and loved to look out the window at the clouds while we were in the air.

I asked her to smile & she showed me her food instead...

Happy to have had such a fun trip, but excited to go home & see Lincoln!

Looking out the window...

Silly girl...

Linc scheduled our flight during Kylee's nap time, which I figured would work out great or turn out horribly. It was a little bit of both. :) She finally managed to fall asleep & took a 45-minute nap at the end of our flight, which was nice.

It was great to see Lincoln. He had Daisy waiting in the truck, which I loved. (It's crazy how much I can miss a dog! :) ) We came home to a clean[er] house & a new puzzle for Kylee. We are grateful that we had the money to make this trip back to the U.S. We created some great memories with both of our families.

3rd Leg of U.S. Trip: Mesa

We got back to Mesa on Friday night & stayed at my parents' house for 5 more days. Melissa, Brad & Nixen are living there right now, so Kylee & Nixen got to see a lot of each other, which they loved...

Kylee liked playing with the fun toys at Grandma & Grandpa's house too...

One of the highlights of my trip was staying up late with Megan each night. We made a few late-night runs to Walmart. We found LaLa yogurt there, which is what I drink a lot here in Mexico, so of course we had to buy one...

We also had fun printing off embarrassing pictures of Melissa & putting them on the bathroom mirror, where she could see them when she woke up...

Watching Toy Story 3 together...

Kylee & I were driving around one day so that she wouldn't wake Nixen up from his nap again. We ran a few errands & then I was wondering where to go next, when Kylee said out of nowhere, "Mom. Temple. Jesus." I asked, "You want to go to the temple & learn about Jesus?" She said "yes" so that is where we went. (We hadn't talked about the temple since we'd gotten to the U.S. or driven by it or anything. She said this completely out of nowhere.)
We walked around the temple grounds...

Then we went inside the Visitors Center. We saw an exhibit that they have on families, where you walk through different rooms of a "house" & watch videos. I'd never seen it before...it was really cool. Kylee loved the Christus...

I had been feeling stressed & confused, and walking around the temple really helped lift my spirits. It's incredible to me that I have a child in my life who is constantly reminding me of what is truly important. Kylee has such a sweet, innocent, mature spirit and I am in awe of the fact that I have the privilege to teach her about the gospel & about life. 

Another night while we were in AZ, I told her it was time to say her prayers and she immediately started praying by herself. (She folds her arms most of the time, but generally doesn't say her prayer with help even, so I was really surprised.) She said "Thank you for day. Thank you blessings. Bless....(and blessed a few people, I can't remember who). Then, "I sorry I hit Nixen" and said "Amen". I've never taught her about repentance or saying sorry in a prayer. Hearing Kylee pray was probably the best experience that I've had so far since becoming her mother. It also reminded me that I need to make sure that I'm always being a good example to her, because she listens & notices things that I don't realize that she does!

We bought Kylee a few headbands from Target to make her look more "girly". She was a huge fan of them...

My mom had stayed in Utah to help Ashley & Shawn and to get some extra time with Cooper. She flew back home the day before Kylee & I left. We had a girls' lunch at Crackers with Melissa, my mom & I. Oh, I've missed Crackers. And I've missed "girl time" without kids!

Kylee was excited to spend a little more time with Grandma before we went back to Mexico...

We really appreciated the yummy dinners, FHE's, games & everything else that we got to do with my family while we were in Mesa. A few more highlights from our time in Mesa were: 

A surprise visit from Steve & Erica & their kids
Lunch & swimming with cousins
Eating Aunt Tricia's famous chocolate chip cookies
Eating dinner with Jana & her family

Visiting 12th ward...it felt like home 

Saying goodbye to Heather before she moved to Utah