Provo's Freedom Festival Parade

Despite living in the Provo area for 7 years Kurt and I NEVER attended the 4th of July Parade in Provo, until this year! We left Heber bright and early to head to Kurt's brother Jason's house. He lives only a block or 2 from the parade route and his ward was having their annual crepe breakfast before the parade.
Coincidentally, Jason & his wife Jeanette live in the very same ward that Kurt & I lived in as newlyweds. We recognized lots of faces and the ward breakfast was actually at our former Bishop's house.

(Keyser brothers - Ryan, Jason, and Kurt joined by Kelsie)

The kids LOVED the parade. I bought Logan a couple flags to carry around during the day and he recited the Pledge of Allegiance for us several times. He is so cute when he says, "..and just FOR ALL".
You can kind of see "Little Miss Sparkles" 2 new bottom teeth in this picture if you look really hard. :) The cute shirt is courtesy of my mom. She has a tradition of buying 4th of July shirts for each of her grandkids every year.

(Logan's first cotton candy with Grandpa)

Just so I don't forget....

Kelsie crawled for the first time tonight! We were in Grandma & Grandpa's living room and decided to get her bottle on her own. I think she likes the soft carpet.

Cull Canyon

I organized some Park days every Wednesday this summer for some of our preschool friends and members of our ward (church)...well anyone who wants to come really. Today's outing was at the Cull Canyon swimming area in Castro Valley. Until today we hadn't been there before. We REALLY liked it and will definitely be back. I've actually been really impressed by the East Bay Regional Parks in general. The ones I have been to are very family friendly, clean etc.
I bought Kelsie this little swim top on clearance at Target...I think she needed the next size up. :) If I pull it down it can cover her belly, but it was so darn cute sticking out. Kelsie is built VERY different than Logan. Logan is ALL Keyser and Kelsie is Smith. As my Aunt Margie would say, she has inherited "the Smith thighs". She must have also inherited her Aunt Rebecca's small waist too. Most pants don't fit her quite right.
Logan asked for his sunglasses as we were getting into the car. I was really impressed that he kept them on the ENTIRE time until falling asleep in the car on the way home. He stayed in the water most of the time (a first) and had fun playing with his friends Ashton & Benjamin.

Fresh Vegetables from the Garden

This is Kurt, who is too lazy to log out/in or even upload my own pictures so I had Rachel do it. But I am writing this, so I'm not THAT lazy...

Anyway, this was the first batch of vegetables that amounted to enough to feed the whole family. Logan planted the green been plants (2 total) and I planted the zucchini plants (2 total). The tomatoes and crook-neck squash should be HUGE by the time we get back on the 13th. Logan and I spent a lot of time getting that garden to grow and now he's really excited to see it putting food on the table. Hopefully he's learning something as we do it.

Utah here we come!

Not a ton to update YET, I've been swamped doing laundry, ironing, packing, and getting the house ready to leave before our trip out to Utah. Also have had church responsibilities for my calling to finish up, baby shower invitations to make, car stuff, etc....but I think the end is FINALLY in sight (or it will have to be).

Kurt will be working a full day tomorrow, come home, and then we'll be on the road. We'll be spending the night in Reno to break up the drive a little bit. Then we should be in Heber sometime early Friday evening.

We have lots of fun activities planned:
*Watching the 4th of July parade in Provo
*Grandpa's RC airshow at "Keyser Field"
*Hanging out and catching up with friends in Provo possibly Monday?
*Trip into Salt Lake on Tuesday?
*Cutler Family Reunion Thursday-Saturday (hiking, BBQ, swimming, shopping, Park City, etc)

We're planning on having lots of fun! Let us know if you might be available to get together. Once the reunion starts we'll be swamped (in a good way) with family...so before Thursday is the best!

Kelsie's 1st Sand/Swim

Anissa sent me some really cute pictures last night from when we went to Cameron Park Lake. They were way too cute and funny not to share.

Bye Bye Hair and Birthday

So thanks to my friend Tanya watching my kids I was finally able to go and get my haircut. I'm loving it so far, but I haven't washed or styled it yet. It's a longer a-line cut and will be nice for the summer. Kurt is still somewhat mourning the really long hair, but my hair grows pretty fast, so it will be long again someday soon. Kelsie already has had a harder time yanking on it and I haven't found any super long hairs yet...so I am excited! (Now I just need to get it dyed)
Last night we had a low-key birthday celebration, since I already went to Wicked and had a BBQ with friends last weekend. We went to our new favorite taco shop - La Cocina Mexicana and then home from icecream cake and a movie. We watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. Pretty cute movie. I was just happy Kurt sat through the whole thing with me. :) (He wanted to watch The Mummy 3 or something like that)

Thinking about making my blog private so I can post more "journally" stuff. If you are interested in viewing it and don't think I have your email address...email me or catch me on Facebook. If I don't know you that well and you still want to read you can still email me and I'll add you. :) I like checking out random blogs too and am sad sometimes when they get switched to Private.

Random Memories - 28 Years

Year 1 - Born in Sonora, Ca. Shared a room with my big brother who wanted a baby for his room...apparently that didn't last long.
Year 2 - Moved to Lancaster, California.
Year 3 - Loved Barbies, My Little Ponies, Smurfs, etc.
Year 4 - Big family vacation to the Colorado, the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, etc.
Year 5 -Started Kindergarten at Sierra Elementary. Mom walked me home from school and we'd stop at Thiftys and get 25 cent icecream cones.
Year 6 -Moved to Susanville, California. Eryn Rose paid another girl a quarter to sit by me on my first day at Richmond School. We were instant best friends. :)
Year 7 - Played soccer and got made fun of for running like a girl. Started softball too.
Year 8 - Baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Learned to ride a bike. Loved camping at Eagle Lake every summer for a couple weeks.
Year 9 - Spellling and Geography Bees. Academic Olympics. Newspaper, Choir, etc.
Year 10 - Riding my bike with friends into town so we could hang out at Wal-mart and buy cassette singles.
Year 11 - Made All-Stars in Bobby Sox Softball. Loved playing basketball, softball, and volleyball. Also was on the Drill Team.
Year 12 - Becky & Art were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Moved to Cameron Park and started school at Rolling Hills. Had a fun year making new friends. Played basketball and volleyball. Trip to Washington DC to see the sites!
Year 13 - Got braces put on. Jodeci/Notorious BIG/Mary J. Blige concert with Lisa, Alexis, and Nic Heronema.
Year 14 - First formal dance (Winterball) - date was Garrett Cooper.
Year 15 - Sophomore Class Vice-President.
Year 16 - Junior Class President, Planned Prom and made a ton of money. Chemistry and AP History kicked my butt. Aunt for the first time! Got braces off finally.
Year 17 - Noah & Anissa were married in the San Diego Temple. Worked at Silva Valley Extended Day.
Year 18 - Graduated from Oak Ridge High School. Spent summer in Bakersfield taking care of Grandma Kyle. Dad passed away suddenly of a heart attack...left for BYU a week later. Great memories with my Rogers Girls!
Year 19 - Met and got engaged to my sweetheart!
Year 20 - Married Kurt in the Salt Lake Temple, honeymooned in Seattle, lived in old 4-plex in Provo, was a nanny to some cute kids in South Provo.
Year 21 - Worked for BYU Independent Study. Moved into the tree streets. Awesome ward and nannyed neighbors adorable twins. Also had surgery on my pinky toe.
Year 22 - Graduated from BYU in Marriage, Family, and Human Development. Started working at Mountain West Title.
Year 23 - Purchased first home in Payson, Utah.
Year 24 - Quit full-time job to help great pregnant. It worked!
Year 25 - Big move back to California. After 3+ years of trying, Logan Matthew was born!
Year 26 - A year of firsts with Logan.
Year 27 - Vacationed in Maui (first trip to Hawaii!) Kelsie Jade was born!
Year 28 - Kelsie had the biggest blowout in her short life, then peed on the floor...hopefully the next 364 days will be better.

Six Flags - Discovery Kingdom

Yesterday we were treated to free passes to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom by my brother's family. They have season passes and let me have one of their friend passes for the day! I was a little bummed Kurt had to work, but the kids and I had a blast! This morning I asked Logan what his favorite part of the day was and he said, "I was not too tall"...translation "I was tall enough to ride the rides!" Logan barely met the 36" height requirement to ride quite a few of the kid rides my himself.
Mom aka Grandma and I had fun taking the 3 youngest grandkids (well 4, counting Kelsie) around on the little kid rides.

Logan loved making the helicopter and airplane go really high and the swings. He was also really excited to ride Thomas. Discovery Kingdom has a little "Thomas Town" complete with Thomas, Birdie the Bus, and Harold the Helicopter - every 2 year old little boy's dream.

We also watched the Shouka show, Logan thought Shouka was hilarious. He just clapped and laughed the whole time. :) Kelsie enjoyed most of the day in the stroller, but all of her cousins made sure she was having fun!