Keyser Family

Our Bay Area Bucket List

2009-11-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

Visit Alcatraz (I went when I was 8ish, but Kurt's never been)
Hike Mission Peak on a low fog day with my camera (when the hills are green ) - Kurt
Stay at a Fancy Hotel in the City for a night
Take a ferry to Angel Island
Go to Point Arena
Take Mom to Carmel
Visit the Winchester Mystery House
Camp in the Northern Coastal Redwoods
Bonfire on the beach with the Tu'itavuki/Grow clan
Go to a yummy French restaurant without the kids
Eat at the Crab Pot in SF (Kurt)
Go to Union Square at Christmas time and see the displays in Macys, etc
See another play/musical in the City (Wicked was AWESOME!)
Take Logan to Six Flags again (specifically Thomas Town)
Take the kids to the Jelly Belly Factory
Eat at Chinese restaurant Devin recommended in Chinatown (House of Nanking)
Yosemite (even though its not Bay Area)

FYI - We'll probably be moving in the next year or so...but have no idea where or exactly when, so we thought we might as well get started on our list!

Busy Busy Busy

2009-11-07T21:12:00.000-08:00

So I really didn't post anything since Wednesday? I failed the whole blog everyday for 30 days thing. My I can repent or backdate a few posts. ;) To give myself credit or at least feel better I have been very busy!

Thursday - Birthday breakfast for my friend Andrea. I had to drag Logan out of Cherisse's house kicking and screaming. Then we decided to go to the library and check out some Thanksgiving books for preschool. I found one I REALLY liked -"Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' ". It was hilarious! I definitely recommend it. Anyways, that evening was filled with wonderful Thursday night TV. Does anyone else watch Private Practice? It has been so great this season!

Friday - It was another crazy preschool day. Fun, but a little crazy as usual. Then I had to help out at our Stake Priesthood Preview.

Saturday - Relief Society craft day! Kurt took care of the kids from 9am-2:30pm, even after waking up at 4:30am to get ready to take the YM in our ward to the Oakland Temple at 6am. Do I have a great husband or what?!? I made a FHE chart (which I need to finish) and a flannel board nativity. I was in charge of helping people make Christmas cards. I copied some samples of my favorite stamping website - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com .

And tonight we just got home from Lisa & Kevin's 6th Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner...and boy am I stuffed!

Kelsie Walks

2009-11-04T21:42:00.001-08:00

Kelsie walked tonight and I pretty much missed it. At least Kurt and the YM were there to verify it. :(

Trick or Treat

2009-11-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

Saturday night we wheeled our big green dinosaur and little ladybug around the neighborhood. Kelsie loved the wagon and wanted to stand the whole time which was a little dangerous. Our neighbor Barbara really wanted to give Kelsie candy even after we said she didn't need any (we didn't take a trick-or-treat bag for her), so she went back inside her house and brought out a Jello cup instead. :) Logan loved ringing the doorbells and saying trick-or-treat, although he was complaining about how hungry he was the whole time....hungry for candy that is!

See, Hear, Smell

2009-11-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

See:
Piles of projects...
1.) LOTS of cardstock, ribbon, and glue for Saturday's Relief Society Christmas card project I am in charge of.
2.) Bags of "stuff" I bought on today's shopping trip (5 stores in 2 1/2 hours!). My friend Sunshine watched my kids for me and they didn't want to leave.
3.) Halloween decorations that need to be taken down.
AND my Freshly mopped hardwood floor. So I actually cleaned it yesterday...but its still shiny so it makes me happy.

Hear:
1.) Logan, Kelsie, and Kurt laughing. :) They are upstairs wrestling on the bed....Kurt already bathed them and put their jammies on. Do I have the best husband or what?
2.) The Dishwasher. My kitchen is clean for tomorrow...and hopefully will stay that way!

Smell:
1.) Korean Beef Bowl I made for dinner. Yes the dishes are done, but the marinade includes a lot of garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
2.) My Dog and his skunk smell. He was sprayed a few weeks back, but the smell still lingers. :(

Busy Month for Blogging

2009-11-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

Just found out about this...and thought I'd give it a try! I figure it shouldn't be too hard with the holidays coming up. In fact, I have pictures from this weekend that I still need to post. :) Last month my reunion and Stake Primary Leadership Training were stressing me out -- This month is forecasted to be a busy one as well, but it should be a lot of fun!

Posts to look forward to this month:

Relief Society craft day (I'm in charge of making homemade Christmas cards)
Lisa & Kevin's Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner.
Kelsie's 1st Birthday and doctor visit!
Logan's preschool Thanksgiving feast
Trim to Morro Bay & central coast WITHOUT kids!
Family Pictures
Thanksgiving in Cameron Park & Family birthday party
Davis' Baptism

GREAT BLOG ALERT!

2009-11-01T13:05:00.000-08:00

http://giverslog.com/

This blog is written by Amberlee - my brother's college roommate's wife....there's a connection for you! I've fallen in love with her Guide to a Stress Free Christmas. For those of you Facebook people she even has a Facebook group and emails you every week with that weeks task.

Preschool Halloween Party!

2009-10-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

My little ladybug and big green dinosaur had a lot of fun this morning at our preschool Halloween party. We read Halloween stories, sang, danced, and decorated some yummy sugar cookies.

Future Plans - Part Two

2009-10-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

OK, thanks for the help, but we're putting a few qualifiers on this post: http://keyserfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/future-plans.html

Our future home has to include the following:

Several different tech related companies. If Kurt ends up losing or hating his job he needs a different company he can work for without picking up and moving far away.
We don't like EXTREMES in temperature...especially the heat. Let's just say we'd rather have snow than use our A/C everyday. We've been spoiled by the Bay Area weather for the past 3+ years. I'm sorry it just doesn't get better than this.
Decent to Excellent Schools - Part homeschooling isn't totally out of the question with the way our public school system is going...but I've found parents are more involved, etc. in areas that have good schools. (btw I don't really WANT to homeschool, but if its necessary I would)
Kurt would also like to live on one of the coasts...this isn't a deal breaker for me, but I like the beach.
I told Kurt that I would move anywhere in the US if he made enough $ to fly me home when I wanted. :)
Affordable housing would be nice, but we do have a sizeable downpayment...so if the salary matches the market we're good (i.e. we actually could afford to buy something in the bay area right now...that's not why we're moving).

If I had my choice we'd stay here or move up the northern CA/southern OR coastline...but we can't. Kurt would do the same or pick up and move to Hawaii. Kurt was allergic to Denver last time we visited and we don't plan to raise our family in Utah...sorry guys!

Realisticly, in the past week we've looked into Massachusetts, Raleigh (talk about extremes in temp!), Enumclaw/Buckley (outside Seattle), and San Diego. Enumclaw/Buckley is winning as of now.

College Savings: The Utah Plan

2009-10-29T13:33:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine at work who had baby 2.0 this Spring told me he had done a LOT of work researching different college savings plans for kids and that the best one he found happened to be called, "The Utah Plan". He's not LDS but is Libertarian and thought it pretty funny that the Mormons know how best to manage money for kids. :)

Anyway, I did some research myself and called our long-term financial advisor about it. Northwestern Mutual doesn't sell it, but he did highly recommend it and said it's definitely the best out there.

The sign-up was incredibly easy - completely Web 2.0 and the management tools feel more like GMail or Netflix than a bank account. Very slick.

So, we've just invested the money from Cheryl for Kelsie - decent timing. I could probably have waited until Jan to get a better deal, but eh. 18 years from now, it won't really matter much.

Give it a look over - just passing on the info that I found valuable. YMMV
http://www.uesp.org/

Future Plans...

2009-10-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

So you may or may not have known that we've had plans for quite a while to move to the Portland, Oregon area in Spring 2010. In fact we already have a hefty down payment for a house (thanks to VMware's IPO & money made on our previous home sale in Payson, UT), towns narrowed down we'd like to live in, and a few companies that Kurt could work for. Well those plans are on hold at least for now.

Sadly we also know that we're NOT supposed to stay in the Bay Area long-term. :( We have loved living here FAR MORE than we ever thought we would and will be super sad to leave. We know that we'll be here at least until the fall, and then who knows.

Earlier this week Kurt had a strong feeling that we should do some research and look into other areas. So...we thought we'd ask for help! If you could live anywhere in the US, where would you live and WHY?

P.S. Portland still make work out, but we're looking into other options as well.

Silly Hungry Girl

2009-10-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

Kelsie had 2 bowl fulls of dinner tonight (Taco Soup...minus the soup) and apparently that wasn't enough. I left the room to do something and while I was gone she pulled the tablecloth over towards her and started feeding herself from the bowl. Afterwards she was STILL hungry and ate a bunch of little veggie puffs things and half a bottle of milk. We went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch so I know she couldn't have been starving! I think someone MUST be having a growth spurt. I am not used to kids that actually eat!

In other news....Kelsie had her first bottle of whole milk today and LOVED it (well drank it...) and she slept through the night (9pm until 7:45am). I'm hoping this trend continues especially for Noah & Anissa's sake. They'll be watching our kids for a few days while Kurt & me take a trip to Morro Bay and up the central coast.

Random Thoughts

2009-10-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight instead of watching fat people jump up and down on TV, I will be the fat person jumping up and down. I decided to make the goal this morning to try to lose 5-10 pounds before Thanksgiving and then maintain through the holidays. Wish me luck!
I have quite a bit of blog posts to catch up on, but they will have to wait....my house needs me the next couple days.
Kurt & I are going on our first trip without kids the weekend before Thanksgiving to Morro Bay and then up the Central Coast. So, I'm starting to wean Kelsie - not fun so far. Any tips/suggestions are welcome! Pediatrician said I can start Kelsie on whole milk - here's to hoping she likes it!
Life will be a little less stressful after Thursday night- Stake Primary Leadership Training. We're having breakout sessions and I will be teaching ALL the Primary teachers in the entire stake! (or at least the ones who show up)
I was asked to teach a class at our upcoming Relief Society craft day...Homemade Christmas cards. Shouldn't be too hard, but I'll have to great my creative juices flowing again. I haven't made cards in FOREVER!
Logan has hit the terrible 3's, Kelsie is getting closer to walking...
I was enjoying the 70+ weather, now its cooler and windy.
Yesterday was Logan's last day of gymnastics....trying to decide whether to sign him back up or wait until after the holidays.

Back to cleaning...more to come later.

P.S. Check out Kurt's photo blog - new pics are posted.

Spooky Dinner

2009-10-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

For FHE tonight we had our friends the Mellors over for a spooky Halloween dinner.
We served Mummy pizzas,

Crazy scared pumpkin lady?,

Carrot eyeballs,

and mummy roll-ups.

So I kind of through everything together at the last minute, but it was a lot of fun. :) We also had jello pumpkins and brain cupcakes. Afterwards Sunshine gave a little lesson and the kids decorated mini-pumpkins.

Mary's Birthday Bash

2009-10-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

Our ward Halloween party happened to fall on the same day as my friend Mary's birthday party. With her husband being our Bishop, her serving in Primary, and having 5 kids of her own...she wasn't going to miss out on Trunk or Treating! So after the party and putting all of our kids to bed we headed to Claim Jumper in Fremont for some yummy appetizers and dessert.
Mary is showing off the cute necklace and earrings I got her with Gigi showing off her cute new shirt it matches. :) I think there was 15 of us in all. It was fun to get together and visit with other ladies.

Colleen, Lace, & Andrea

Co & me

Ricelli, Zilda, & Elecir

Tanya & Cherisse

Candace, Robin, and Robin's mom who was in town visiting.

Mary & Gigi

UC Ward Halloween Trunk or Treat

2009-10-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

My little ladybug & scary green dinosaur (Thanks Alyse for letting Logan borrow Charlie's costume!)

We had a lot of fun at our ward's annual Halloween Party. After the dinner and games we "trunk or treated" in the back parking lot. Kurt held down the trunk while I took Logan around to collect his candy. We had to skip over several SCARY cars....trick or treating should be interesting this year. Logan is scared of everything this year. At Target we can't walk by the Halloween displays because of the witch with the scary red eyes....Logan knows exactly where she is too and makes sure we go the long way around the store to avoid her.

Pumpkins at Perry Farms

2009-10-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

Most of the pumpkin patch was closed due to the mud (since it rained yesterday), but it still took Logan FOREVER to pick out the perfect pumpkins.

Kelsie, on the other hand, thought hers was delicious.

Kurt's FHE Lesson

2009-10-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

Logan really wanted to play trains with his Daddy, so Kurt cleverly worked it into his Family Home Evening lesson.

Blue Thing = Heavenly Father
Thomas Train = President Thomas S. Monson
Lion = Logan

Lesson - President Monson (Thomas) delivers important messages from our Heavenly Father. We need to listen to him (like at General Conference) and do the things he says.

Kelsie - 11 months old

2009-10-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Since I'm behind on her scrapbook these posts are helping me out. :)

A few things about Kelsie at 11 months....

She is a speed crawler. She can crawl up our stairs or out any door in record speed.
She cruises along the couch and can stand on her own for 5-10 seconds. When we clap she is SO happy and shows up her cheesiest grin.
She has started pointing to things (#1!)
She must be going through a growth spurt because she has been eating a ton lately. I still usually spoon feed her, but she has been wanting to feed herself more. I am yet to come across something she won't eat.
Still only has 2 bottom teeth, but I can see she will have a mouthful soon.
Has been sleeping from 8:30pm-5:30am for the last week...and then after nursing goes back to bed until 8am or so.
She loves giving hugs and lights up when her daddy walks into a room.
She likes to rip up books and anything else she can get her hands on.
Still has bright blue goopy watery eyes. In every store I go into someone asks if she was crying. (I should just start saying yes)
Does not like big farm animals, but is ok with Bronx.
Starting to wear 12 months clothes, but I am surprised that some of them look rather small on her.

Reunion: The Main Event

2009-10-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

So my 10-year high school reunion is FINALLY over. It was a lot of work, but I had fun working with these girls - Tarrah, Lauren, & Katie. We were so lucky that Katie has her own event planning company...so she definitely took the lead. My job was to annoy people with countless emails and Facebook messages, but they must have worked because we had a pretty good turnout especially since we didn't start doing a think until July. Traditionally the Senior class officers are supposed to plan reunions, but ours were lame and didn't do a thing.
The evening event was held at the Bass Lake Golf Course clubhouse. The sunset was beautiful, so we had to take a couple pictures. :) We pretty much hung out with Lisa & Kevin most of the night. Most the friends I wanted to see (that came to anything at all) were at the breakfast. Kurt & Kevin had fun shouting "Oak Ridge Football Rules!" and "Go Trojans" into the crowds of people....they so did not want to be there. We served appetizers, had a fancy salad bar, and cheesecake and other treats for dessert....there was also an open bar for those interested. The open bar was probably why I enjoyed the morning event best. :) Lets just say most of the class took full advantage of the open bar.
We also had a photographer take a group picture of everyone along with a photo booth for whoever else wanted their picture taken. We took a couple "prom" shots I'll have to post later. We're supposed to get the files this weekend and if not I'll scan the ones they gave to us.

Spooky Scary Skeletons

2009-10-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

In between reunion parties, the kids and I watched my oldest niece Tristan dance at a local elementary school's Halloween festival. Tristan has been dancing since she was super little, and keeps getting better every year. We rarely get to watch her perform, so I was excited we were able to, even if they wasn't a big production.

Reunion Breakfast

2009-10-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning came way to early and the kids and I were off to my reunion breakfast. We had a really good turnout and it was crazy to see the number of kids our class produced! We had the breakfast at a part in El Dorado Hills and the kids had a blast. I think the only thing Logan ate the entire morning was a Gogurt. Kelsie made lots of new friends too and she was passed around from one person to the next.

ORHS Homecoming 2009

2009-10-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

Reunion festivites started off Friday night at the Homecoming football game. I seriously have not been to a high school football game since I graduated high school. It was a little different not knowing a single player, but we had a lot of fun catching up on the past 10 years. Kevin & Kurt couldn't (and didn't really want to) make it Friday night, so Lisa and I headed over to the game together. I also took Logan and he had a lot of fun and was making tons of new friends. I think he would have left with Kylene. He wanted to be friends with Scott McMahon's little boy, but they were both too shy. Although his favorite part was seeing Tommy Trojan (I should have taken a picture). Lisa carried him all the way down to the field to try to catch up with Tommy.

The craziest part of the evening was seeing all of the changes at the field. They built huge new bleachers on the opposite side of the stadium, now have turf and an expensive track. I think there were 30-40 cheerleaders and a dozen tiny Trojan cheerleaders.

Apple Hill - Take 2

2009-10-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

God Be With You Till We Meet Again....We'll miss you Zac!

2009-10-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

We found out today that our good friend Zac Grow passed away this morning. Zac was born with spinal bifida among other problems. He lived to be 25 years old, much longer than he was expected to, but it doesn't make his loss any easier.

I very rarely saw Zac without a huge smile on his face or him using his fingers to motion us over to say hi. He loved to look at pictures of his family and friends, so one of his brothers gave him a watch that displayed a slideshow of pictures. Knowing that Zac liked pictures Kurt took one of him with his camera phone and saved it as his display on his phone. At church Kurt would show Zac his picture and he would just laugh and laugh.

Zac will definitely be missed, but a part of me is excited for him. His body will be healed and he will be able to run, play, and communicate with everyone around him.

Our hearts go out to the Grow (and Tu'itavuki) Families. We love you guys! You are such great examples of service and love --not just to Zac, but to everyone around you.