It's almost summer!

The weather sure is heating up outside and summer is just around the corner. We are doing what we can to prepare for the warm temperatures and I'm planning out a detailed summer schedule so I can keep the kids entertained on a budget. Kylee only has a week left of school. We are so excited for summer break and to be together all day everyday! Just wish David had summer break too!

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 Here is what has been happening lately...starting with our Carter man!

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He is getting so big!! He turned 18 months on May 7th and he is constantly growing and learning new things daily. He continues to win our hearts over day after day with his sweet face!

 He sure is ALL BOY! He loves to get dirty and be outside all day.

 His hair grows so fast! With Kylee we never cut her hair. We just let it grow and grow. But something we aren learning with a boy is that you have to cut their hair at least once a month. Suckers do the trick every time!

 I just love these pictures! Our little cowboy!

 Handsome as ever!!!

 His personality is definitely one of a kind. Being silly wearing cousin Ella's nurse glasses!

 Oh this little man....he is just so perfect in every way! All handsome for church!

 He makes the best faces too! He was very excited about coloring in church on this day!

 Funny boy tried his first lime recently. These pictures speak for themselves!

 Carter got his very first REAL baseball hat! He looks so cute in hats. I can hardly take it!!

 Just perfect!

 First experience with a lady bug. Poor lady got squished 30 seconds after I took this picture.

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And now onto our Kylee girl! She has overcome Guillain-Barre like a champ! The first 3 weeks were very scary and unpredictable...but from week 4 to now (week 6), she has shown absolutely zero signs of GBS. Her physical therapist only saw her twice and said he didn't need to see her anymore because she is great. She returned to dance and softball. She hit a home run her first week back at softball and she performed 2 dances at her recital for dance. She has impressed doctors and everyone with how fast she has heeled. She has been an incredibly strong fighter and has been determined from the start to heal. The power of prayer and the Priesthood is undeniable! We are so thankful everyday that our Loo Loo bug is back!

 Sad day....Carter got a hold of Kylee's iPod and smashed it pretty good. Luckily it still works because it will have to carry her through until her birthday!

 Working on her back bends. This was week 3 1/2 since she was diagnosed. Improving so fast!

 At her dance recital! Looking amazing already!

 We absolutely love Miss Melanie, Kylee's dance teacher. She has been so wonderful and supportive with Kylee during her sickness.

 Gotta love dance makeup and hair! Ha! But she was so excited to get a trophy at the end of her recital! Can't wait for next season to begin!

 Spirit week for school was a couple weeks ago and Kylee had a blast dressing up! This was 70's day.

 Natalie had her precious beautiful baby girl on April 28th (which I'll explain more later). But Kylee was so excited when she finally got to hold her!

 More dance recital pictures...

 She is determined to get her flexibility back so she will be ready for dance company tryouts in July! She works so hard!

 We got hit by a huge haboob at one of Kylee's softball games recently. It was so forceful. I've never been outside in the middle of one before.

 Teacher appreciation gift! Kylee's teacher, Mrs. Farias, is so wonderful.

 The most recent picture of Kylee with her big smile that was missing for 3 weeks. Words can't describe how happy I am to have my beautiful smiley girl back!

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Onto some other things that have been happening lately...

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Natalie's water broke at midnight on April 28th. This was happening! I rushed out to the hospital and couldn't wait to welcome my sweet niece into this world!

 Since Natalie delivered at the hospital that Tera works at, Tera was able to go on shift and be Natalie's nurse. It was the most amazing thing ever. Tera is seriously the best nurse ever!

 After a long day, Nytlee Ysabel Miller entered this world at 4:55pm on April 28th weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long. She is absolute perfection!

 Miracle babies!!!!

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More random photos....

Carter can be a handful at Kylee's softball games sometimes. He wasn't quite feeling being on Daddy's shoulders this night.

 Probably one of my favorite pictures of my beauties! We were early to Keaton's baptism so we walked around and took some pictures. This one turned out perfect!

 My sweet sunbeams! I love being their teacher. They are the cutest and sweetest things ever!

 Kylee and Carter had joint doctor appointments recently. Carter unfortunatly had to get his 18 month vaccinations. He was not happy about those! But he is still tall, 92% for height and he is gaining weight, 68%. Healthy kids and all was good at their appointments!

 David came home from work one day with these little bad boys! Brings back so many memories. Kylee loved throwing them and Carter thought they were hilarious everytime they popped. He couldn't stop laughing!

 Another girls night out with my long time besties! I love these women in my life!

 And I was lucky enough to have lunch the very next day with another long time friend with her gorgeous baby girl. Carter and baby Lailah would make the cutest couple!!

Like Father like son! Leg up and taking naps! Precious!

 

Well, we sold our house! Well....hopefully. We got an offer we couldn't pass up so now we are just waiting to make sure everything appraises and works out. If it does, then we will be out of our house by June 11th. Crazy to think that this won't be our home much longer. We have brought home 2 babies here, they learned to walk here, said their first words here, and we have millions of memories within these walls. I'm sad to leave but excited for more room to grow in our next house. We love love love our ward and are doing everything we can to purchase our next house within the boundaries. That's our number one goal!

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Life is amazing and we are excited for the future and what it may hold for our family! 

Feb-April Wrap Up!

Wow...a lot of time has passed by. I haven't let this happen in a long time. Considering all that's been going on, I think I have a very good excuse. First of all these pictures are going to be out of order and kind of all over the place but that's mainly because I got a new phone and lost all my pictures. So I had to take quite a few screen shots and do some crazy work to find my pictures. It's so important to me to have these blog posts so that I can turn them into my picture journals at the end of each year, so I spent quite a bit of time getting these pictures back. So....here is all that has been happening in the past few months:

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First some misc and fun things that have been happening...

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I recently had a fun girl's night out. I absolutely LOVE our ward! We have game nights every weekend, girls nights, and other fun activities going on all the time. This night was super fun and 14 of us got together and went to Oregano's for dinner. Such a fun group!

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This was way back from Valentine's Day. I found a website that makes chocolate weapons! I just HAD to order David a chocolate gun for his gift. He LOVED it and took it to work to show it off to all his co-workers. I love surprising him!

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Well, we have finally done it! After years and years of wanting to list our house and move to a larger home, we are finally able to do it and sell our house for more than we owe. So thankful the housing market is getting better. It has been on the market for just over 2 weeks now and we are hopeful we will sell it soon and be able to upgrade. We want to stay in our ward boundaries though because we don't want to leave our friends! 

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David got me a sewing machine for my birthday but I have no idea how to use it! So my friend Jami and I signed up for a sewing basics 101 class at JoAnn's and learned how to sew! It was so fun because it was just her and me and we both were absolutely clueless! We made these cute tote bags! Can't wait to sew more things!

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General Conference was a couple weeks ago and we went to my parent's house for our annual family breakfast and conference. On our way home we decided to drive by the new Phoenix temple. When we lived out there last year they were just breaking ground and barely getting the footings cemented in. Now it's making huge progress so it was fun to drive by and see where it has come! 

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Well, we finally did it! We left T-Mobile and switched to Verizon and got iPhone 5's! We had horrible service with T-Mobile and were anxious to make this switch. We were finally almost up on our contract so we ditched out 80 days early and made the switch. So happy we did and that we can finally make and receive calls consistently! 

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This was Kylee and I on our way to Natalie's Eastside baby shower. I just love doing girly things with my girl! 

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I got really sick back at the beginning of March. I had fevers, chills, and my chest was on fire! I never go to the doctor for myself, but I knew something was going on so I went. I ended up going to the Urgent Care because it was after hours, but I don't really trust those doctors. They said I had a throat infection and gave me antibiodics for strep, even though it wasn't strep. I believe that I may have had a form of pnemonia. It lasted about a week and a half, but was good after that. 

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A sweet sibling moment....Kylee helping Carter eat some breakfast!

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Back in March we had a freeze chill come over the valley and it ended up snowing in Scottsdale! This is a picture of the ball field on the reservation where David works! Crazy!

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Me and the kids taking a "potty" break during church. Haha!

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It melts my heart to see how much they love each other! 

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This was the cake at Natalie's baby shower that we put on for her. Our friend had it ordered for her. It was absolutely gorgeous! The shower was a huge success. We can't wait to welcome baby girl Miller in just a few weeks!!! 

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This was taken at the shower. It portrays each of our personalities perfectly. So funny! I love my sisters!

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Back in February we got selected to try out for the Family Feud! My family LOVES this show and we grew up watching it. So when auditions came to Phoenix, we entered for a chance to tryout and we got picked! We literally got picked to go on the show! Woo hoo! This was at the actual audition!

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We went to lunch afterwards......what a good-lookin' group! :)

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Then we got the post card in the mail 3 weeks later where we learned our family had been chosen! Now we are just waiting to hear from them again to find out when we actually fly out to Atlanta to do the taping for the show. We are so excited!!!

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Over Spring Break in March, we did a few fun local things since Dad had to work and we couldn't leave town. This was at the train park in Scottsdale. We went with the William's and Collin's kids too. It was so much fun!

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Carter watching the train go by.......he was a little excited!

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Train ride time!! 

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Now onto our Carter baby! He is 17 months old now and is becoming quite a little character. He is developing quite a little temper! It's hilarious! If you tell him no, this is the scowl and stink eye you will get in return. Oh he is such a crack up! 

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He loves his "bath-a-bath". He was so excited to take his bath on this particular day. He started ripping his diaper off before I could make it to the tub. 

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Well, Kobe Bryant had a career ending injury recently so we, natually, are getting our little man ready to take his place! Ha! 

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Carter had his second hair cut last month. His hair grows so fast! 

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The result......so handsome!!!

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Oh how he just brightens our day!!! He loves reading books and was really excited about it in this picture. 

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My grocery shopping partner! He doesn't last long without throwing some kind of fit (mainly because he hates sitting in the grocery cart), so I have to bribe him in any way that I can. I forgot to bring treats this trip so I bought a box of fishies and opened it for him at the store before paying for it. Haha! Oops! Don't worry, I did end up paying for it! 

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I just love this picture of my handsome guy! He was playing at the park where Kylee's has softball practice and right before I took this picture, he threw a handful of sand at my face. He thought it was hilarious! 

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Oh this face!!!! He makes the funniest faces but this one is the funniest of all. Whenever David wiggles his nose, Carter makes this super cheesy smile face back at him. I happened to catch it at the right moment on my camera. So funny!!!

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SOOOO handsome!!!!! 



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 Now onto the princess of the family! Kylee-Loo is our sunshine and she amazes us daily with her talents, strength, beauty, and faith. She has been going through a lot lately, which I'll explain later.

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Here she is with her dance company waiting to hear the awards after a long day of competition! Her little dance group is just darling and so talented. This is their first year competing together so they are learning as they go. But they keep improving and ranking up at each competition. So proud of her!

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During Spring Break I took my girl to get manicures with me. I've been getting gels done on my nails for a couple months now and Kylee has been wanting to get some ever since. 

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However, during Spring Break Kylee had yet another fever and showing signs of sickness. So I took her to the doctor to see what was going on. We left with no answers of course. It seems over the past 3 months we have been to the doctor a handful of times with no answers. So we left and she started feeling better later that day. She keeps having a peek-a-boo fever with peek-a-boo symptoms. 

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Our flexible little girl working on her splits. This was an exercise her dance teacher told her to do at home. She has become quite the little flexible dancer! 

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At one of Kylee's competitions, there was a hip-hop dancer from England that came to teach the girls a little hip-hop! It was so cute watching them learn how to "pop" and dance like that. 

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Now for what has been consuming all my hours and days....On March 25th Kylee was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). All the details can be read on my seperate blog: www.kyleesgbsfight.blogspot.com. It has been a hard and long journey and we know it's not over yet. But Kylee has been a fighter and has learned so much from going through this. We are so proud of her! In this picture we had just picked up an edible arrangment and balloon from Grandma Deedee and Grandpa Jiggs! She was excited and is actually smiling in this picture (it's just hidden)!



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Despite everything Kylee has been going through since she was diagnosed with GBS, she has been working so hard at home to stay on top of her school work!


 
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And her hard work has paid off! Despite missing 10 out of the last 25 days of school, she has managed not only stay on top of her school work, but she has brought two B's up to A's and made the honor roll for the 3rd consecutive grading period in a row! Oh she makes us so so proud!!!

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Life is a zoo right now but everything we are given we can handle....mainly because we have the knowledge that we have a loving Father in Heaven who gives us challenges because he loves us and wants us to learn something. We feel special to feel His love in a way we never have before. David and I are blessed with the most amazing children we could ever wish for and they teach us something new daily. We never thought we could love our sweet babies any more than we already do, but through this trial, we have discovered a whole new kind of love. It has brought us closer together as a family in every way possible. We are such a blessed family with the most amazing family and friends and ward ever! Life is amazing and we love it!