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.