Kalza Reunion

Introducing Brooklyn Garza. Proud Grandma is holding her. We went to the Garza's cabin Monday night and stayed the night for one last get together before they head back to Texas.

She is the happiest baby. I can't believe how much she smiles at three months.

These three are three months apart. 9,3, and 6. Cohen was cute and would try to hold Brooklyn's hand, while Troy would try and grab her face. Ha ha. He did grab her hand once, but he wanted to put it in his mouth. I think he thinks the other babies are just live toys. :)

We had to get a couple poses of course. I couldn't believe I caught Troy smiling. He always just stares at the camera with those big eyes. But at least he looks right?

The whole gang. Allsops, Garzas, Kitchens.

I could never tire of that cabin. It is so beautiful up there. After the three babes Finally went to sleep, we played games and talked till like 2:30. I honestly can't remember the last time I stayed up that late. They are so worth it though!

On Tuesday we opened a big box of Toys that Troy got for Christmas. I still need to open the other ones. Yes, he is the first grandchild on both sides. We are very grateful he is so loved!

My little man.

Family and Friends are THE Best, Oh and..

We are going private. I honestly love anyone and everyone to read our blog. I just think it is more safe. So let me know if you want to be added! My e-mail is charly_0717@yahoo.com.

Starting from last Monday.. Monday night we anxiously awaited to see our friends the Garzas (currently living in Texas while Reed attends Medical School.) I had not met their sweet little 3 month old Brooklyn yet. They also had not seen our new place, so we were making sure we had everything cleaned up and ready. Troy made sure he was looking good too, but got a little carried away :)

We were so excited to have them over. We thought Troy would be a little more attentive to Brooklyn, but he really just wanted to kick furiously and crawl around. My little energy ball. I didn't mind because it provided me time to hold Brooklyn. She makes THE funniest expressions. She definitely inheritied her father's talented eyebrow muscles. The Kitchen's were over as well (missed you Mariannos!) Cohen is starting to look like a little boy, but not much bigger than Brooklyn (3 months difference.) We could play for days on end and never get bored. We Love our friends. We our planning on doing Family Night tonight at the Garza's cabin. It will be fun to see Melissa's family. Here are the moms with their three babes. Troy wouldn't stop kicking, even for the picture :)

Tuesday we left at about 11 to go to Las Vegas to see the Cougars. Thanks Emily and Steven for those awesome tickets. We had so much fun. Troy got to spend time with his Grandpa Allsop and Beverly. Apparently he didn't sleep very much... but Grandpa was still incredibly patient. We went on errands the next day. Ben's Dad spoiled Troy with clothes and then spoiled us with house decor. We got to meet his coworkers, which was fun. They took us to BJs (I think) that night which was so so good. We left the next day after having a pre-Christmas morning. Troy was an angel in the car both ways. We leave again to Vegas on Wednesday, so hopefully he will be the same...

Right when we got to Provo we went straight to Ben's Grandparents for a Christmas Eve dinner (we were already late.) They always have a "finger foods" dinner. Then a program of singing, musical talents, with small thoughtful discussions about Jesus' birth. Lastly was the cousin gift exchange and the gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. Right after that ended we went home, quickly dropped off our stuff, got new clothes and Troy supplies for the next couple of days. We stayed the night at Mom Allsops on Christmas Eve. We updated each other on our lives and opened 1 gift each. Christmas morning was loaded with gifts and smiling. We got home decor, clothes, and of course Troy got awesome toys. The best part about it though is how giddy Mom gets about giving. She is always thinking of others. We had Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. They are one of my most favorite foods and so I made sure to preheat the oven right after I got up so that they would be ready :)

We left at about 1 to head to my families house in Holladay, but we were late. We had a yummy Christmas Dinner with the whole family and got to talk to Michael and Tyler. They are both getting so mature that I wasn't sure it was them :) They both have always been sweet, but they are disciples of Christ now. I can't wait for them to meet Troy. The family of course loved being with him. Here is Maddy and Troy.

We stayed the night at my mom's and played basektball at the church for a few hours the following day. We did some shopping at Kohls (my new favorite store) and ate In-n-Out together at Wendys. Ha ha. Mom and Corey spent the day serving others, watching Troy and Corey helped people in their ward. Here is a horrible picture of Devin, Sarah, Troy, Me, Ben, and Alan.

I forgot to take one when everyone was together, so this is right before we are getting in our cars to leave. I am extremely blessed with so much family. Ben and I want a big family partly because we love both of ours so much. Christmas was perfect because we were surrounded by people we loved and who loved us. It was really fun to give and get gifts, but the best was just spending time with them. To be surrounded by family and friends, really is THE best.

What a Wonderful Weekend We Had

Here is the beautiful Gingerbread House that Ben and I made. Ben made the lines SUPER straight. I tried to make a bow on top of the "bells." The icing all dripped a ton after we tried putting all the pieces together, so a ginormous "icicle" formed in the middle of our wreath.

On another note, this morning I went to empty the dishwasher that Ben so kindly started last night and I found this..

I couldn't stop laughing because I just never expected to see a bunch of disney characters in my dishwasher. Oh the joy of being parents. Troy got those awesome toys that are perfect for his size at the Merrill Christmas Party on Saturday. We had it at our clubhouse and it went really well. We had a yummy dinner with tons of soups (enchilada, taco, etc.) and a plethora of side dishes. Dinner was followed by all the kids performing the manger story. It was adorable. Baby Jesus was the newest little cousin, and the other babies wore their Halloween costumes which were all animals ironically. Then we had the gift exchange. We played a Christmas version of eye to eye that Vicki came up with and we finished with watching a play that the little girls came up with about Santa. Honestly, they were probably better actresses than many on television. Such a fun night.

Yesterday we went to two wards. The first was a ward I was invited to play the harp for. It is a unique ward with many challenges, but also with the greatest spirit I have felt of any ward. I had tears in my eyes the whole time. Ben and I both felt so humbled. The Bishop had the biggest heart and you could tell the ward took care of eachother. It was the closest I felt to a real Christmas with our Saviour.

I got to continue this feeling in our own ward as our Relief Society put on a beautiful play (for lack of a better word) with the story about the women in Jerusalem during Christ's birth. The mother of Mary, the mother of Joseph, Elizabeth, the wives of the innkeeper and the shephard, and of course Mary herself. The women that played these parts put together their own costumes and spoke of their experiences with the Christchild and his parents.

I have never had a Christmas filled with so much focus on the Christchild. As it should be. He is our Saviour and the reason we can rejoice. I love our Saviour.

Weekend Updates

Sunday Dec 13: Went to our new ward at 1 PM. I don't think I've ever been greeted by so many people at once, other than my wedding :) I'm sad to leave our ward, but I know we will really enjoy our current ward. Ben and I got to sit in Sunday School together. Our Sunday School teacher was the best I've been to in a long time. So impressed. He talked about God's plan vs. the World's lack of plan. He related his own experience of being one of the executives in his own company, but has been unable to pay himself for 11 months!! They have a bunch of kids that he is responsible to provide for, but he remained so positive and humble. What an example in these difficult economic times. I think of the many times I get frustrated with little things (like losing my keys) when I really need to have that positive and humble attitude. Nothing is really THAT bad. I have my family. I am able to have a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ because of the scriptures available to us.

Sunday Night: We went to a Farnsworth Christmas Dinner at my Aunt Yvonnes. They have this gorgeous home in Alpine and she had her house beautifully decorated with PLENTY of food. It was so tasty. Plus, we love seeing all my cousins and laughing with them. You never stop laughing with the Farnsworths.

Saturday Dec 12: Made Ginger Bread Houses at Joe and Ashley Mills' house. Rich and Rachel were there too. We all made awesome houses. Rich and Rachel probably won though. Joe and Ashley made me laugh throughout the whole night though with their house. They had some awesome ideas..like putting a Y, but they just turned out a little different :) What none of us expected was to hold our houses together for like an hour so that they would stay together. Ours still didn't stay together, so I superglued it when we got home. Joe and Ashley didn't care enough so theirs slowly collapsed. Ha. They tried to save it with loads of frosting, but that only made it heavier and therefore it fell faster with all of the frosting dripping off. I still laugh thinking about it. I wish I had a picture. I brought my camera but forgot the SD card!

Friday Dec 11: Hung out with the Kitchen's! When I saw them come to the door I thought, "I don't think I've seen Brock in forever." Brock is taking finals currently and needs to get awesome grades for medical school. He's a smarty pants, so he'll do great. We ate loads of pistachios (won at Ben's Work Christmas party, I guessed the EXACT number, 472 ... but guessed way off on the others.) Ben and Brock of course created a game out of the pistachios. Basketball with the shells into the bowl. They could entertain us for hours with hardly anything available to them. Everything is a competition :)

Today: Still getting the house fixed up from the plumbing problem. Finally, I think this is the last day. So excited for Christmas!! We have pretty much all our shopping done. Now just the wrapping. I love having wrapped presents under the tree.. well now that we have one. Oh I Love Christmas!!

Playdate and Food Storage

On Wednesday my best friend from high school, Rachel, and her son, Noah, came over for a few hours in between Rachel's cello lessons. She teaches Cello in Murray and Provo, she is amazing. I could not believe how fun it was to have them over!

Here they are surrounded by toys, but Noah is playing with a book/music light and Troy is playing with baby oil that still has the plastic seal on it. Adult things are just so much more interesting I guess. I'm sure they will actually start playing with each other eventually. Right now it's just the occasional stare and maybe a smile while they play with their "toys."

Rachel and I with cheesy smiles.

Ben, Mom, and Rachel talking after a yummy taco salad dinner. My mom came down so that I could cut her hair. We cut off quite a bit, but it looks pretty cute! It would have been way easier if Liss was there... :)

Rachel told me about this awesome website: Food Storage Made Easy. It gives you 10 baby steps to accomplish over a certain period of time to get all your food storage done. One of the first steps is to have a place for your food storage. So we decided to go the cheap route and make homemade storage containers out of cardboard. Check it out!

Playtime with Troy

Playtime in the morning. He is always smiling, except when he discovers the camera for some reason.

There's that smile.

He LOVES when Daddy comes home. It means a new burst of energy for playtime. And we all know that Ben has endless amounts of energy. Perfect for Troy. Like Father Like Son.

Playtime before Stake Conference, so that he will sleep through it... hopefully. He did sleep for like 40 minutes. He was suprisingly good for the rest of the time too. Church is the only place he has a hard time. Ben was singing in the choir while I was with Troy. Ben and I felt so uplifted and closer to Christ after the Sunday session. Elder Munday (sp?) from the seventy came. He talked about Christ experiencing EVERYTHING we have and therefore knows us that well. It made me realize how well we can know him and therefore be like him. Perfect timing for the Christmas season.

Playtime after Stake Conference. Troy could play all day with your face. It just depends on how long you can handle it. His grip is really strong!

Pictures

Disclaimer: Our house is a mess since we are still unpacking. But I decided to post some pics anyway. This home is perfect for our little family and it's fun to call it our own.

Kitchen : My favorite room in the house. It has WAY more space than our old place. Notice the two holes? It is explained in the post below. Also notice that the bar stools are not the same height? We havn't decided which height to use. The taller looks prettier but is difficult to eat on. The shorter is perfect for feeding Troy and eating cereal. Any suggestions?

That space is where our future kitchen table will go...
The family room to the left has no blinds yet.. so I will post more pictures of the house later. Can you find Troy in this picture?

Front room: Perfect for our large instruments. We are still deciding where to put the computer, but we want it on the main floor. Like our frames? I put up our 7' Christmas tree ($50, Home Depot, Black Friday)

Laundry room: Currently washing our new red towels we got for $2.50 each on black friday. Have I mentioned we did black friday? :) It was crazy, but it was great to get stuff that we had been waiting to get.. like Troy's high chair. Yes, he is 8 1/2 months. I have been using the swing until now.

Troy is getting so big!! I just had to put a picture up of him :)

Our New Place

We just barely got the internet working... it was wired wrong. We have a one year warranty on everything in the house and I was scared that after we closed that the contractor and subcontractors wouldn't be as helpful, but I was wrong! The night before Thanksgiving we were talking with Rich and Rachel until about midnight and I am so glad that they were there because right before I went up to bed I heard this drip... drip... from downstairs. Oh, I must have left the sink on... Ben went downstairs to check and BAM there was water all over our floor and a hole in the ceiling. WELCOME to buying a new house. Ha Ha. It really wasn't that bad. We called a couple of people in the morning and they had a plumber out within the hour. ON Thanksgiving. We were so grateful that they responded so quickly. It did make us late for Thanksgiving dinner but at least we were not worrying about it leaking.

There was still a little leak that we found this morning, so plumber junior is fixing it right now upstairs. Again, they came within the hour. So great. We do have three holes in our kitchen and one in our master bath, but they have already come to look at what they need to repair. Thank goodness for the warranty.

Other than those problems, we LOVE our new place. The carpet is a zillion times better than our old place and I just love the look of everything. I can't wait to Homeify it :) I put together our new barstools that we got for a rediculous deal on black friday. Can't wait till everything is really put into place. Pictures to come.

House Update

Thanks for everyone's support! Run Down of our Townhouse: It has a 2 car garage. 3 Bed, 2.5 Bath. A small front room (perfect for our large instruments) and a "great room" connected to the Kitchen. It has a small unfinished basement connected to the garage. That is not enough info to picture anything, but I WILL post pictures. The stairs going down to the basement/garage are unfinished, so we paid the carpet guy to do the stairs because I could just picture curious Troy falling down those stairs. He let us choose from his scraps (really nice scraps.. just not the best color selection) and did it for $180. Most everyone in this house buying process has been absolutely wonderful. I think I will give them Christmas presents. Seriously.

We are probably closing tomorrow morning. Hopefully there will be no more surprises. Our Mortgage Broker seems to have a lot on his plate. I still wish we could have used my step-father Corey (Walker Mortgage.) He is so on-top of things. I think things would have gone a lot smoother. Corey still helped us out a lot though. He checked all the paperwork and numbers to make sure they were correct. THANK YOU COREY! Our current Broker was shocked that I understood all his lingo and then further asked questions.

Ben and I are SUPER grateful for his job stability and that we get to stay around family and friends. We are truly blessed and I know that we can be of service to the Lord here. We just need to put our thoughts and intents into action right?! A large flaw of mine that I have been working on. Thank you for your love!

All Fours and Good News

Troy got on his knees for the first time on Sunday! He has been doing the push-up position for a couple of days, but never got on his knees. I have a picture and I will post it soon. He has had a hard time going to sleep the past couple of nights. He did better last night, but right when I think I have it down, he switches on me.

Saturday night was pretty crazy. We have been looking for a washer, dryer, and fridge for our new home we our buying... more about that later. Well, I wanted to wait until Black Friday to get a really good deal, but after much research and accidentally seeing an ad on Best Buy's website on Saturday (blessing) we decided that the prices were not going to get much lower than that on the specific items we wanted. We ended up paying hundreds less than we thought we were going to have to spend :) However, the crazy part is that I was playing the harp for a Young Women's and Young Men's activity on Saturday night (airplane crash... some may have heard of it.) So, Ben was price matching and seeing if R C Willey could give us a better deal (which they did) while I was playing at this activity. I had to text him to get it like 5 minutes before it closed (the deal ended Saturday.)

I feel really good about it because we didn't get too high-end of stuff, but they have gotten good reviews. Ben and I really did our research, and I'm glad we will have a fridge when we move in instead of waiting till after Thanksgiving. But do we know when we are moving in? Not yet! But hopefully we will know soon. Probably Tuesday... if all goes well. Another bit of good news. We found someone to rent our place right away (our contract does not end till May.) We are SO grateful.

Late Halloween Pics

I forgot to take pictures ON Halloween.. so this is the day after.

No matter how much time I spend with Troy, I am still surprised by how beautiful his eyes are. He can sit up for small amounts of time, but the padding on his costume made it very difficult. He hates to sit up anyways... he would rather stand and lean on stuff.

I'm holding his hand so that he can sit up. He is starting to get very mobile with army crawling. He likes to play with toys by laying on his side and holding himself up with one hand in a twisted position. Sounds painful, but he pulls it off quite well.

He called Ben with my cell phone today, all by himself. He even put it on speaker so that I could hear Ben saying, "Hello?.....Hello?" I was laughing so hard that Ben was a bit confused because I couldn't explain that I wasn't the one calling :)

He loves to grab faces and Ben's hair. For some reason he gets really intense about it. Probably because he can't get his mouth close enough to it. I think his slobber has touched just about everything we own. People keep telling us, "He must be teething." Well, then he has been teething forever and has none to show. I just know they are coming soon though.

Quick but Forgetful #2

So ya know how I sent Ben to the store for salsa? He came back with guacamole that has some salsa flavoring... He said he thought it might taste better. Nope. But it's good with Ritz crackers! Good discovery I guess :)

Troy is Beginning to Talk

Quick but Forgetful

One thing I love about Ben is that I can spot him from far away because he runs everywhere he goes. Even if there is no need to be in a hurry, he's in a hurry. Even when we are half an hour early to a BYU game, we are practically running to the stadium from our car. Everyone stares and laughs at my comments of, "Why are we in such a hurry?" Ben replies, "Why shouldn't we be?" Ha. He is always on the go.

There are two times the past couple of days that this has caused two funny events. 1) He put Troy's pants on backwards right before church. I did not notice till we got home because I am not with him during church (primary.)



2) I had everything to make enchiladas tonight except for salsa. I sent him to the store to get salsa. He came home with two bags that contained cereal, rice, crackers, a movie.. but I can't find the salsa. He frantically looks around and says, "I know I got some! It must still be at the store?" So he is running back to the store at this very moment. Hey, at least he will be running :)

Troy's 1st Halloween

Troy: Tigger
Charlotte: Winne the Pooh
Ben: Christopher Robin




Our ward party was hilarious. Everyone dressed up, including the Elder's Quorum President dressed as Little Bo Peep. Tells you how much our ward gets into Halloween. They had dance-dance revolution, cake-walk, fishing booth, and other things. Dinner was served and trunk-or-treating after.

The party held at our place turned out great! Liss and Brock made it spectacular, plus everyone brought yummy stuff. We had so much fun and will not hesitate to do it again. Two soups, crescents, fruit, salad, rootbeer, and caramel apples that would stick to your mouth for hours. We played battle of the genders, always a winner. Thanks for that contribution Garzas :)

Our Costumes: Troy's was $5 dollars at Babys R Us, last minute sale. I got all my stuff from DI for $9 in about 10 minutes the day of Halloween. I washed everything right before we left to the parties. We didn't really know what to do for Ben's, but he has long socks on! Maybe rain boots and a rain hat would have made it more believable. Next time...

Troy update: He is 7 1/2 months. He army crawls to get things he wants. He decided to start talking on Sunday during Sacrament meeting of course :) He is still super smiley and always kicking. He wants to put everything in his mouth, especially if Daddy is eating it. He always sounds out of breath because he moves so much. He laughs when we laugh. He Loves books. He still has no expression in the bathtub. He grabs the spoon when I try to feed him. He tipped a bowl of hot chili down Ben's pants at the ward Halloween party and cried because it was hot. However, when he does cry from pain or fear, it is less than 10 seconds. He is constantly rolling and still refuses to sit up. We love him so much and can't believe how big he is. (Apparently not that big though, there was a child his exact age at the ward party and he looked 2 months older than him.)

It was a great Halloween.

Hair Cut, Pen Face

A few days ago I cut Troy's hair for the second time. It was the best choice ever to learn how to cut the boys' hair. The haircutting tool that we got from Wal-mart makes it pretty easy. I still am not sure how curly Troy's hair is. I'm interested because Ben had really curly hair as a kid. It's fun to be able to compare our child pictures and pick out what he got from us. It still wigs me out that he grew inside of me. I love it too though. A blessing and miracle in one.

Anyway... here is Ben holding Troy still so that I can cut his hair.

Kind of bad lighting, but he has the cutest face in this picture.

Ben and Troy at the ESPN Gameday event by Lavell Edwards Stadium.

The next thing to report is that I still have not learned to remove everything within a nine foot radius of Troy. I thought I had scanned the area of things I didn't want him grabbing, but I missed a pen! He took advantage of that mistake pretty quickly. I forget how far he can roll!

Doesn't he look so innocent. Luckily he did it right before his bathtime. Just the beginning I guess... He is starting to scoot kind of. It started back in Florida. He will lift his whole body off the ground with his hands, but can't quite figure out to get on his knees. He also tries to stick his bottom up in the air as far as possible. An interesting approach.

I LOVE FALL

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE FALL in Utah? The colors, the smells. The excitement of holidays lurking around the corner. It reminds me of how happy Meg Ryan was in You've Got Mail about fall and "a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils."

I have been wanting to take pictures, but didn't get it done until my friend Liss spoke up of her desire to do it today. We decided to take some family pictures. Check it out.





I think Brock discovered his true calling. To be a photographer. Cameras will probably take a backseat to Med school, but I am telling you he is amazing. Garzas: We have decided we will do this again when you visit in December! Mariannos: you should visit in December too :)

Florida Pictures

Here are some of my favorite pictures of our vacation in Florida!

Troy did pretty well on the plane as you can see. His last straw was about 1/2 hour before we got to Salt Lake on the way back. Poor guy and poor passengers.. I still think he did great though. That was a lot of flying and that was the only time he cried.

There were so many blessings on this trip. I listed them at the bottom.

First day was spent at the beach. This shows how much of an angel Troy was all week.

Atlantic Ocean.

Kennedy Space Center was a definite highlight of the trip. I have never felt so small.

My favorite place at Universal Studios: Dr. Seuss Land.

This is the splash created by the Jurassic Park ride that we went on several times. There were practically no lines the day we went. It was so great.

Epcot was absolutely fascinating. This is Morocco.

Ben is pretending to be an English spy. Pretty good huh?

I love how smiley Troy is. He loved being able to see so many different things at the parks.

This was our last day at the parks. We were EXHAUSTED. Or at least I was. The final day was spent at Tampa Beach. I would have pictures but the wind could have literally blown me over. The sand was still like flour though. Oh this trip was so incredibly fun!!

Blessings: 1. Our family is so incredibly fun to be with. We miss them already. 2. Our car that we rented was supposed to be a full size (it would have been a tight squeeze) but they only had a mini-van left! 3. Our hotel room was upgraded to a suite where Ben and I had our own room upstairs and our own bathroom. The space was needed so Troy could cry to sleep and we could be playing games or talking in their room downstairs. 4. Troy was starting to get sick the day we left, but the sickness paused and didn't start up again until we got home. 5. Troy was so good for the whole trip. What a trooper! 6. Mom is an "Elite or Medallion" airlines member and so we didn't have to pay for any of our bags and bypassed all the lines. Thanks again Mom for making this trip happen!