Our Visit With Colin and Bethany

Colin and Bethany are our best friends from St. George. Beth bought Colin Jazz vs. Lakers tickets for Christmas, so they came and stayed with us while they were in town. It was so fun to get together again! The last time we saw them was for Tayanna's first Birthday in May. It was so good to have the kiddos reunited and watch them play together. They have both grown up so fast, it's amazing what a difference a few months make when you are that little. Taya is only a month older than Kaleb, and of course they are betrothed! I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted too, but that is the story of my life! We love you Colin and Bethany! It's so nice to have friends that it doesn't matter how much time passes, when you get together its like no time has passed at all! We had so much fun with you just visiting and hanging out, we miss you so much!! You need to move up here!!! I bet the buissness and housing market is better here anyway!! 

        Kaleb  posing alone, because he wouldn't pose with Taya

        Cute little Taya riding the fire truck

Beth and Taya

Cute babies looking out the window

My Valentines Date

     My Culinary (and cookie cutter) Skills at work

      My little Helper

Kaleb's heart man

     Kaleb's Valentine bag with his Valentines in it

The boys and their Valentine's and our heart shaped ham and cheese sandwiches, which we were very proud of!

As most of you know, Blake works and goes to school full time. So trying to find time together is pretty tricky! His typical daily schedule is him leaving the house around 8am, going to school, straight to work, and then home close to 11pm. So we get to see each other for about a half an hour in the morning and maybe an hour or so at night, before we are both too tired and need to go to bed! Valentine's day being no exception! So to start out the weekend of love, my date (Kaleb) and I went to a Valentine's party my sister and I threw at her house for all the little kids who aren't old enough to go to school. We had Heart themed food, passed out valentine's to each other, and made valentine crafts. Very fun and cute! Then we came home and made heart shaped, pink rice krispie treats, and heart attacked our house for Blake. Saturday morning we woke up and had heart shaped french toast with strawberries and whipped creme. That was about it! Despite the lack of romance, it was a really fun holiday. Kaleb makes everything so fun, he gets so excited and thinks everything is so cool! Valentine's day is over rated anyways right?! I hope you all had a great Valentine's weekend as well! 

First Born Survey

Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about your first born! Just copy and paste it in a new note for yourself! Let's see how much you remember!

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? yes, almost 2 years

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? I was so happy, I could hardly believe that we were finally pregnant. I think I cried every time I thoguht about it for a week!

4.WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? no

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 23

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? I took clomid to get pregnant, so about a week after I was late I took a pregnancy test, while I was at work at the hospital. I wish I had waited once I was home, it was kin d of depressing standing in a hospital bathroom bawling by myself... no one to share it with... :o)

7. WHO DID YOU TELL? The first person I told was a girl I worked with, she's the one who talked me into taking it at work in the first place. Then I told blake once he got home from work

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Yes

9. DUE DATE? June 16, 2007

10.DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Yes, it sucked

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? For most the time, fruit and smoothies, ice, and really bad fattening food

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? I just hated hearing other people complain about feeling sick or whatever, cause all I could think about was if I can be here than you can definately be here!

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S GENDER? Male

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Nope

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 50!!

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Yes, a few thank goodness

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? Planned.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Not official complications, but I had major swelling starting at about 22 weeks, at 36 weeks my ankles were 11 inches around! I didn't start gaining weight until I was about 20 weeks, so 50 pounds in the last 21 weeks was pretty hard on my body, my hips caused me a lot of pain.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Dixie Regional Medical Center

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 5 hours of labor, then 45 min. of pushing

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Blake

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Blake and the hospital staff

23. WAS IT VAGINAL OR C-SECTION? Vaginal

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? yes I had an epidural

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 8lbs 6 oz

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? June 23

29.WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Kaleb Preston

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 19 1/2 months :o) He's the best thing that has ever happened to me. Even now, when he's sick and whinny, and I was so glad to pt him to bed for the night, I miss him...

Maylee's Stroy, Part One

In case anyone was curious.... 

Blake and I have always known that we would have our kids about 2 years apart. So as we started approaching Kaleb's first Birthday we started talking about our next one a little more. Our original plan was to start trying around December (2 months ago) and then they'e be a little over 2 years apart. I thought that would be perfect, because hopefully potty training and a big boy bed would be well under way. Not to mention that 6 months is a ton of time when we are talking about toddler maturity levels! Well, a lot of things started happening this summer to get the ball rolling a little faster.... first of all, my best friend got engaged and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. Great! Except that her wedding is June 2009! Then both Wade and Jolene, and my sister had cute tiny babies in July! So blake and I started talking about our strategy. We decided that for the wedding I either needed to not be pregnant, early stages of pregnancy, or already done with pregnancy! The first two options I was pretty ok with, but we knew we didn't want our kids almost three years apart, because of school, sports, and all that other stuff that plays a role when you're too far apart. We really want our kids to be friends, and close to each other. So we did some math and figured that if we were going to have a baby before the wedding and have me still be able to go, we'd have to get pregnant  that month! I was a little terrified of that idea, but agreed to pray about it. So here's the kicker, just within the few days we were talking and praying about it, I started to feel calm about the idea of having another baby. I felt like it was something I could do, and handle with a little bit of grace! :o) Then those few days were over and I felt terrified again and not ready to take that step. BUT IT WAS TOO LATE!! Talk about trickery from the other side! 

In the past when I would picture Kaleb with a sibling I always pictured another boy. Which was exciting to me, not only to have two boys, but to be able to use all those baby clothes again! But that night we found out I was pregnant, both Blake and I instantly knew we were having a girl. It was a good feeling, but a little panicky too, I'd have to buy all new stuff for a little girl! That's not very friendly to a single income family! So I kind of held out hope and tried not to get too determined that we were having a girl until the ultrasound.... then it was confirmed! I was shocked at how happy my tears were! I just felt like our family was complete! I couldn't imagine anything more perfect than to have this little girl join our family! 

We had decided on her first name back when we were expecting Kaleb, before we knew what he was, we knew we wanted a Maylee if it was a girl. Our original spelling would have been Maeli, but we decided to name her after my grandma who died a few years ago, who's middle name was May. So to make the name more fitting after my grandma we changed the spelling. Her middle name is going to be Marie. Marie is after the middle name of my best friend who passed away when we were 15. Ever since she died I knew my first girl was going to be named after her. So there she is, Maylee Marie, and her story so far! Stay tuned for the sequel in about 8 weeks!  

"Once there was a Snow Man..."

Just getting started, trying to figure out how it was all going to work!

                                                        A Proud Moment....

Progress....

      Tah- Dah!I couldn't even get the whole thing in the frame!

Keep in mind all these boys are right around 6 ft.....

Definately a masterpiece!

Well, Like I mentioned earlier on Christmas Day we were expecting horrible weather and tons of snow..... it didn't come until much later that evening! But in the days before Christmas we had gotten quite a few inches and there were some neighbors by Doug and Leen who had built some pretty big snowmen. Well, The boys will be boys and decided that they could take on the challenge and build their own snowman. Besides, they wouldn't be Huff's if there were people in the neighborhood who had snowmen, and they didn't! So right about 3:00pm, when the weather started picking up the boys decided to start on the snowman! They were out there for 4 hours in howling wind and rain/ sleet building this guy! It was worth it though! It was by far the biggest snowman in the neighborhood, if not county! You can tell by some of the pictures that it's taller than the bottom of the roof on the house! While they were building it people would drive by several times just to look at the progress, not to mention in the days following the photos that were taken in Doug and Leen's yard of other people's kids in front of the snowman! In fact, Doug got out of a speeding ticket because of that snowman! He got pulled over, and the officer had recognized the street name on his license.  Doug said he was the house with the snowman, the officer started talking to him about it and let him off!! This Snowman will definately go down in the book of legends at the Huff house!