Wow! Almost three months have passed since I've posted anything. We had one crazy summer. I'm not even sure where to start. Let's see, in June we went to California. We had so much fun and Kenadie loved it. It was her first time flying and she did pretty awesome. She loved Disneyland and her favorite ride was It's a Small World. She went nuts in there. I took one class in July and that took up pretty much all my time. I also worked part time during my class so it was a pretty rough 4 weeks but it was definately worth it in the end. Randy was awesome the whole time and never once complained about eating whatever most of the time and having a not very attentive wife for a few weeks. Keeps 'em humble right? Once the class ended it seemed like I had endless time before me but I didn't. Me and Kenadie went to Texas with my dad and little brother the last week of July into the first of August. It was a long drive but overall a pretty good trip. Kenadie again was an awesome child. She travels so well and I am very thankful for it. Randy and I had our 3rd anniversary on August 5th. Hard to believe it's been 3 years already. I feel like we've accomplished a lot in a short time. It was an awesome feeling celebrating 3 years and I am looking forward to many more. Kenadie turned 2 on August 8th and we had her birthday party that day. It was a lot of fun. I am still having a hard time believing I have a 2 year old, but I do. She is growing up way to fast for me. It seems like everytime I blink she changes. So far this is my favorite stage. I've loved all the stages but she is so much fun now. Minus 100 tantrums a day. She talks so much now and learns things so quick. It's amazing. She got tons of toys for her birthday and even made quite a bit of cash for a 2 year old. Randy and I went to Wet N Wild in Phoenix the next day and Kenadie stayed with her Grandma Tammy and her aunts and got even more spoiled. It had been a long time since me and Randy have done anything together so we had a ton of fun and I enjoyed every second. Randy went back on nights when we got back so I've been pretty sad. I get so spoiled when he goes on dayshift and I absolutely hate being alone at night. He got in a minor accident last night but he is okay. It amazes me how calm and strong he can be, but I guess that's his job. I was so relieved that it wasn't worse than it was. As Randy always says, somebody sure likes him up there. Jacob started his first week of school on Thursday. So far he is liking it, but it's only been two days. I hope that we can have a good year this year. Randy has promised to buy him a gun if he gets atleast Cs and better this year. Hopefully the bribe works! I've had him the last couple nights which helps a lot when Randy works nights. Jacob is really great company for me. I start my classes on the 24th so I'm getting pretty excited, nervous, but excited. I am definately ready to be done for awhile. So all in all, we are all doing great. We are busy but life is really great. I will try to stay on top of this better :)

I don't even know where time has been going! I can't believe May is already half over. I think I'm ready for it though. May always makes me kinda sad. It's hard for me to believe that it's been 3 years now since I graduated high school. Doesn't seem like it can be possible. Time goes by way to fast. Every year though I get more thankful for the friends I've stayed close to since then. It's crazy to look at where we all are now. I have gotten to spend time with Monique since she's been home for a couple weeks which has been wonderful for me. There's nothing like spending time with someone you've known most of your life. I love that no matter how much time passes between visits it all feels the same. It's nice to know that some things don't change. Briana's bridal shower is on Saturday and I can't wait to be around some of the girls who are in so many of my most precious memories and who I love dearly.
We have all been keeping pretty busy. Randy's working a lot as usual and I've been keeping busy with Kenadie and church stuff. Tomorrow night is our mother daughter night for my girls so I'm glad that the stress is almost over. Tomorrow I'll be running around crazy but then it'll be over. Randy and I have our first nephew. Randy was so excited. I'm sure we'll do our fair share of spoiling the boy rotten. I'd already forgotten how small and fragile newborns are when we went to visit him at the hospital. Didn't make me want another one though so that's a good sign I suppose. Maybe in another year I'll get baby hungry. My friend Amanda had another baby a couple weeks ago and we had her daughter Libby for the day. Her and Kenadie had a picnic for lunch and we took them to the park when it cooled off to go play. They had a good time. I don't think I could ever survive twins though.






Kenadie was so cute the other day. Randy was sleeping on the couch and she was so tired because she wakes up at 5:30 in the morning so she got her blanket and crawled up with him and fell asleep. They look so much alike! I never thought I could love anything as much as I love Randy and Kenadie. They are my world.

Kenadie playing in her little pool Ran built her at the river last week. She was so excited. I have a video but once again for some reason it won't let me upload it but I'll keep working on it.

Life is really good for us. We are going to Casa Grande Wednesday to see Randy's mom and sisters and for Kylie's graduation so we're really excited. I can't wait to get outta town and see them. I completely lucked out in the in-law department. It's not very often I don't think that a girl gets along with all her in-laws as well as I do. I'm thankful that Randy's family has always treated me so well. From the very first time he took me to meet any of his family I have always been treated like part of the family. I love them for that. I love that even though they're not perfect there's so much love between them all. The older I get the more I realize how important family is and in the end it's the only thing that really matters. So I'm very grateful that out of all the girls out there, Randy chose me to share his family with. In a few weeks we'll be leaving for California and we can't wait. Oh, sad story real quick, Randy lost his wedding ring working on his friend's car. I keep crying about it, haha. But I've made sure it's not when he's around because I know he was upset too and I don't want to upset him more. But his wedding ring is gone! So silly, I know, but I can't believe it's gone. I know it was just a ring, but it was like THE ring, ya know? I had it personalized and everything. No other ring will ever have the value to me that that ring had. What a silly girl I am. Anyway, that was my sad story, but I hope that everyone is also doing well and we love you all! Xoxo

Summer

I don't know about you, but I am so glad it's getting to be summer. We continue to spend lots of time at the river since the weather has been so great. Last week we went twice. One day Randy, Kenadie and I went exploring on some of the less traveled places at the river and found some great spots. It was a great day. The next day after we picked Jacob up from school we went with Brian, Stephanie, and their two kids Brookie and Tucker and we cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and the boys fished with no luck unfortunately. We had a great time. The kids had a lot of fun. I am so greatful we have friends like them here. The Xterra still smells like campfire unfortunately though. Randy continues to be really busy with work and between Kenadie and Jake and church stuff I am staying plenty busy. I start school at the end of June and some days I wonder how on earth I'll manage balancing anything, but for some odd reason I'm not happy unless I'm running crazy. So I'm pretty excited to be going back. Exactly when I said I would too :) My broken toe continues to anger me. It was doing much better until Kenadie ran it over with a shopping cart at Walmart and it's been swollen again ever since. I wish it would hurry and heal so I could go running again. Running or walking everyday was making a huge difference in my attitude and ability to deal with Kenadie when she got in one of her moods. So needless to say I have really missed doing that. I went walking in my flipflops the other day which resulted in blisters so I'm thinking I'm just gonna have to suck it up and figure out a way to not think about how it hurts to wear enclosed shoes. Maybe tomorrow would be a good day to try. We shall see... Kenadie is constantly throwing temper tantrums these days. Sometimes it's so hard not to laugh at her, but laughter is usually what gets me from one day to the next. I think that's one reason me and Randy get along so well. Even when I want to be mad or irritated with him he always makes me laugh. Laughter is such a wonderful thing. Kenadie is still hitting no matter what we do so I'm trying to come up with a way to put a stop to that but I've come up with nothing so far. Nothing affects the girl. She is very smart and knows exactly how to play her cards. Somehow at the end of the day though she's worth it all. We hung curtains in her room today so I'm hoping that it will darken her room a bit in the morning and maybe she'll sleep past 6. Probably not though. Here's a few pics from the last couple weeks:

Kenadie in one of my activity day girls' boots and playing with her bucket at the river

And the three of us. XoXo

Nighttime...

Tonight I am baking cakes. It's a little after 10 and I am finally doing the last one. We're celebrating my dad's birthday tomorrow night and I am making him a Dale Jr. cake. He and his girlfriend went to the Nascar race in Phoenix this last weekend so it's appropriate. As much as I love to bake and decorate the cakes, I don't think I'll be up to eating any of this one. I made one for Jake's birthday party a week ago so I'm kinda caked out. But I do love to do them. I wish I got to do them more often. I made Jake an army cake with tanks and army men, the works. I thought it turned out nice. It was yellow cake with strawberries in the center and whipped cream frosting. It was so good. Dad's is going to be same only with buttercream frosting.
It's so quiet in the house after Kenadie goes to bed. As much as I want peace and quiet all day, it makes me kinda sad that it's so quiet. She's getting so big. Lately it seems everytime she falls asleep, she's grown a couple inches by the time she wakes up. She's talking so much now too. It's amazing how she goes to bed one night then wakes up the next morning and can do all sorts of new things. She's been wanting to pretty much live in her red wagon her grandpa Ramie bought her for Christmas last year. Yesterday my mom, Heather, Jorden, and Destany came up for a visit. It was so nice. I love getting company at our house. Destany spent lots of time pulling Kenadie around in the wagon. The kids are so cute with Kenadie. We had our trip to Scottsdale a couple weeks ago. It was so great to get out of town. I didn't want to come home at all. We stayed at the Orange Tree Golf Resort and it was so nice! We had so much room and it was so comfortable. I loved it.

This is Kenadie taking a bath in the huge tub that was in our room. We turned the jets on in it for her but she didn't really like it. Randy learned a lot in his training and it was a wonderful little get away for the three of us. I'm greatful that both Randy and I need to get outta town periodically. We're usually pretty happy to be coming home, but we both appreciate the need to get away.
Kenadie had a good Easter and scored big with everyone of course. I have a video, but for some reason it won't upload so I will have to try again later when I'm not so tired. That is a little of what's going on, more to come, promise, but for now I need sleep. Xoxo

Coughs, Sore throats, runny noses, nasty bumps, and missing teeth

Wow have I been slacking! Things have been kinda crazy around here lately. We've been keeping really busy. Kenadie has been a lot of fun lately, she's such a nut! Me and her have been pretty sick the last couple weeks and are having a heck of a time kicking our colds. We have managed so far to escape the flu bug that's been going around here though. Hopefully I haven't spoke too soon. On Thursday we had to make an unexpected run to Tucson for me to see a dentist. Unfortunately, I had to part with one of my beloved molars, so along with my sore throat and horrible cough, I've had a horrible tooth (or I guess I should say toothless now) ache. I hope it heals soon. I've been living off mashed potatoes and fat free vanilla icecream the last couple days. Randy took off work to drive me down to Tucson and Horst went with us to help with Kenadie. Which I was so grateful for because it was one less thing I had to worry about. We went to one specialist first, who kindly told me there was nothing more he could do to save my poor tooth and that we needed to get it out soon because it was terribly infected. I was so impressed with that office though because they took it upon themselves to call around to different surgeons to see if any of them could remove the tooth so we didn't have to waste a trip to Tucson. We drove right over to another office and while we were driving, I opened the referral the previous dentist sent with me, and this is what it said...Which, of course after reading, I burst out crying and laughing at the same time. The boys thought it was pretty funny. Haha so after another stack of paper work, and a little waiting, they were ready for me. I was kinda bummed because they wouldn't let Randy back with me, but I suppose it worked out because Kenadie was pretty grouchy by this point and she didn't just want Uncle Horst, she wanted him and Daddy. It didn't take them too long and it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Now I just have to wait for it to heal and then we'll go on from there with either a bridge or some other thing to keep my teeth from moving and wasting all that money my parents spent on braces. Kenadie had a nasty fall this week. We're not completely sure, but we think that she hit her head on the corner of her toybox. I cried naturally when I saw the huge lump and bruise, but I think we're doing pretty good. She's almost 2 and this is the first head bump.

After the first night, luckily, all the swelling went down and it was just a bruise left. It really was so sad. She's such a tough girl though, she hardly even cried. One last picture, is one I took tonight. Kenadie and Kenadi, together again. My Kenadie held my friend's Kenadi when she was just a few weeks old and Kenadie was about 8 or 9 months old. Tonight they were giving eachother kisses and being so adorable together.

Aren't they such dolls! That's about all for tonight, I really need to get to bed. We are leaving for Scottsdale in the morning. The training that Randy was supposed to have in Flagstaff this last week was moved to this coming up week in Paradise Valley. I should have plenty more pictures and stories by the time we get back. I hope that if any of you have been watching conference you've learned as much as I did in the two sessions today! Xoxo

KENADIE MAE.....

Oh, if I had a dollar for every time I've said her name this week! My girl has been on some serious mood swings this week. We are gonna be in big, big trouble when she gets to be about 12. Two Loya girls on PMS in the same month, :O Randy will definately be signing on for all the overtime he can when that day comes. Anyway, we've had a pretty busy week! Randy had lots of court and had shooting practice one day so he's been pretty tired and worn out. Kenadie's been a complete handful all week, so I've been terribly exhausted too. I had Jake until Thursday, and then Eric (Randy's little brother) stayed with us for a couple days. And since Eric was here Friday night, Jacob came over and they had a sleepover, which nearly resulted in me having a heart attack, but we all survived amazingly. And hopefully the boys had a good time. Last night we had our Fire and Ice ward party. It was fun. They had lots of different chili, cornbread, and then my favorite of course, homemade icecream. I just had icecream :) Kenadie ran around wild and crazy with all the other little kids and had a blast. Then we came home and attempted to watch a movie, but we all passed out at various points and somehow, though I don't remember a thing, we all ended up in our beds. This morning we went to church, late of course. I don't think I've ever been on time to church since I had Kenadie. I really try to be on time too! Every week I wake up a little earlier and we still don't manage to get out on time. I recieved another calling today. I still teach my primary class, but now I'm in charge of achievement days too. I'm pretty excited. I already know all the girls pretty well from being in primary so it should be really good. Kenadie took a nap today but instead of taking my somewhat usual Sunday nap with her for once, I got ahead on some of my housework I'd been slacking on the last couple days. Then we drove down to the river with Randy's dad and Eric and hung out down there for awhile. It was a lot of fun. The weather has been so great lately. I'm so glad it's summer! Now I just need to get rid of this albino white look I've got going on and get my tan on. I thought I would start today, but as luck would have it, the spot we were at was shady. Just my luck, ya know? So I'm still white as a ghost unfortunately. When we got back from the river, we put Kenadie right into the tub, then the dogs since they smelt like wet river dog, and had dinner. We went to visit my dad, and got all caught up in a movie he was watching. Mr. Brooks I think it was called. Totally psycho, but really good. And now Kenadie is in bed (happy day) and I have a minute to write this and Randy is.... :) Playing Rainbow 6. We have another fairly busy week ahead of us, then it's off to Flagstaff for us on Sunday for Randy's training...yay! I love staying in great hotels on other people's money. Now for pictures...


This is the poor puppy (I'm still looking for a name...) hiding from Kenadie's rampage on the kitchen... See below...
This is the mess I willingly let Kenadie make so I could make dinner. Can you believe that?! I sure as heck couldn't, but you can't imagine how desperate I was.

This is Kenadie showing off her 'Bow' (belly) to everyone at the park

Kenadie eating her banana on the way down to the river. Her window was down so she was so excited.

More pictures to come soon, promise, but for now, I am wiped! Xoxo

Why, Oh Why?

I'm trying to remember at what point exactly I thought it was a great idea to buy Randy a playstation 3 for Christmas last year. As I sit here watching him and his friend blow the heads off people, I honestly can't recall that moment. Ha, actually, for a guy, he's not too bad about it. A few weeks ago, he went almost an entire week without touching it because he was working so much. Now I suppose it's time to make up for that time lost, so as he looks over at me, all proud that he's now staff sergeant or something, what else can I do but act like it's the greatest accomplishment ever? Oh, how I love that man. Kenadie loves sitting on his lap when he's playing. She fell asleep watching him play tonight. What a great way for her to go to bed. No fight, no fuss, just next thing I know, she's out. Today was a good day. Just one of those perfect days. We had ward conference today so there were lots of visiting people which was nice. My primary class was on their very best behavior today so class was great. Kenadie cried when I took her to nursery, where she promptly fell asleep on one of the leaders and slept almost the whole time. Which was bad for us because we usually nap on Sunday afternoons with her. But Randy came to my rescue and let me take a nap for awhile anyways. Since he's been off on Sundays for a few weeks, Sundays have become our lazy day. I look forward to Sundays all week. I'm so sad that he only has 2 more weekends off and then we'll be back to the days off during the week...Boo. We went for a walk this afternoon which was really nice because the weather was great today. We had a really nice weekend. Randy's mom came down and saw us so that was great. Kenadie just soaks up the attention. She also took Kenadie with her for a few hours Saturday morning so me and Randy got to have a few hours baby free. That almost never happens so it was so wonderful. Wonderful isn't even a strong enough word to describe it. It's been a long while since I've gotten any free time to myself. My family got back from their cruise so it was good to see them again too. Which, when we did see them, in Walmart of course, my sister Heather made my day. Probably even my whole year. Instead of fussing and running over to Kenadie, as everyone else did and always does, she came to me first. ME! Oh Heather, how I love you! Of course I'm just joking, I would rush to Kenadie too, her being as adorable as she is. I mean, who could compete with her beautiful face and adorable manurisms? Definately not I, but Heather made my day regardless. Well I best be getting my butt to bed. It's back to school in the morning for Jake and after a week off I'm sure he's not gonna be to happy about it in the morning. G'night. Xoxo

Here we go....

So after a year or so of telling Randy I'm going to start a blog, I'm making myself sit down and do it today. I hope that this will help our family and friends be better updated on the things going on in our life. I've been doing really good about keeping up with my journal (thanks so much to my mother-in-law for buying me one for my birthday) so hopefully I'll have the same success with this. Let's see, Randy and I have been married for over 2 1/2 years and Kenadie is 19 months old now. I find it hard to believe some days that that much time could possibly go by as fast as it has. We are living in Morenci. We've been here over a year. While sometimes we really hate it, there are things about it that I really like. Our ward here is by far the best ward we've ever been in. I just love it. Who would've thought that some of the greatest people live in Morenci Arizona? Not me, that's for sure. I didn't even know there was a mormon church here until I was probably 17 or 18, haha. Kenadie just started nursery last month and it's been really interesting. She loved it the first 2 weeks but the last couple she freaks out before we even reach the door. She loves playing with kids that are younger than her, but doesn't have much tolerance for kids around her age and older than her. The majority of the kids in nursery are her age, only 2 I think are 2 or 3, so you can imagine how nursery goes. Sometimes I peek in at her after I teach my lesson just in time to see her hit one of the other kids with a toy. While it always makes Randy proud that his baby girl doesn't take any crap, I suppose I'm the one that will have to worry about trying to teach her to be nicer. Randy's working for Clifton Police Department and he loves it. He's been a cop now for over a year. He has quite a reputation around here. I'm so proud of him. He does such an awesome job and even though I'm constantly worrying about him, I'm so glad that he's found a job that he enjoys doing. When he worked for the mine I used to hate when he would go to work because I knew he hated it. Kenadie is just growing like crazy. I can't believe she'll be 2 this summer already! She is so smart. She already talks so much. Today she told me la you (love you) without me telling her first. I almost cried. Even when she's driving me nuts, she has a way of doing something that just stops my heart and makes me forget all the things she'd been doing to drive me crazy. Lately she is obsessed with her baby dolls. She carries all of them around. She brings them to me 100 times a day to be wrapped up in blankets and put in the stroller. She loves pushing them around the house. It always makes me smile to watch her with her dolls. I've started calling her little mama and she just smiles so big when I call her that. It's amazing to me that our mothering instincts kick in even when we're babies ourselves. We've been practicing colors and she's already picked up on blue and purple. She had her first camping trip Monday night. We went down to lower Eagle Creek with Brian & Stephanie, their 2 kids, and Brian's brother and girlfriend. We had so much fun. Kenadie was so good the whole time. I was so impressed with her. We rode four wheelers through the river and Kenadie loved it. She is an adrenaline junky like her dad. As for me, I'm still just staying home with Kenadie and taking care of Jacob when my dad's working. Jacob's become practically like a son to us more than my brother and it always shocks me when he's back with my dad for a few days how much I miss him around here. He went camping with us too and it was really good for him to get outside and do boy stuff like shooting guns and stuff. He helps me not feel so lonely when Randy works nights. I took another semester off from school and while I've enjoyed the break, I'm ready to go back and finish so I can be done. I've been looking at doing a class or two through MCC online this summer, but I haven't decided if I'd rather just wait till August instead of trying to cram the class in 5 weeks. We shall see..... Life is keeping us pretty busy but it's really great. Good night for now. Xoxo