We love Sweet's!

This past Wednesday Kaylee and I went to the Sweet's Candy Factory with my mom, Kim, Brooke and their kids. It was a lot of fun! If anyone is interested they give a free 40 minute tour of their factory (http://www.sweetcandy.com/). I'm pretty sure us adults had more fun than the kids, but the kids still enjoyed it. We watched how they make their candy and got samples throughout (that was both the kids and the adults favorite part). At the end you can purchase discounted candy in their shop. I'm pretty sure that's why they give you the samples throughout. You can't help but buy the delicious candy at the end.

My favorite parts (besides the hairnets and samples) were the jelly beans without the shells (they should make them that way... yum!) and the pipes running above our heads filled with chocolate and corn syrup (it felt like we were visiting Willy Wonka's Factory).

Everyone, including babies, had to wear a hairnet because you walk right next to the candy. Kaylee did so well at keeping hers on and she looked so stinkin' cute!

We each got a bag of taffy at the end. Even Kaylee. She loved hers.

The whole gang looking hot in our hairnets and showing off our candy at the end of the tour.


Before the tour. They have strollers for you to use. Notice the gummy bear on the rug to the left of Kaylee. It was a fun place. (This is out of order, but my internet browser is being weird and won't let me cut and paste pictures to change it.)

Kaylee absolutely loved her bag of candy (she also loved when I let her suck on a piece of taffy).

He's home!!!

We had a fun, eventful day yesterday. Nathan got in a little after 10:30. We were all able to meet him at the airport and afterwards a bunch of us did a session at the Salt Lake temple. He was released at 5:00 and afterwards we had a garlic shrimp and steak dinner in his honor. Then Kelsi had a choir concert at 7:30 (which she did great in!) and we watched the American Idol finale afterwards (which I thought was amazing). Nathan saw a friend at the concert and hung out with him instead of watching AI with us. I thought he'd be weirder after getting back, but he's actually adjusting quite well. Already hanging out with friends, hugging girls, driving alone, staying up past midnight, etc. Here are a few pictures from the airport and Kelsi's concert. It was a great day!

There he is!

Proud uncle

Kelsi presenting him with his new phone: a hot pink razor (Paige's old one that became Kelsi's till Nate came home. Don't worry... he'll be getting a new one).

Kelsi's concert showcased 2 choirs and then the individual best talent within the choirs. Kelsi is/was in AWE (Advanced Women's Ensemble) and her and 3 friends sang a pretty song at it and did awesome! They performed this for Solo and Ensemble and got the highest score possible. Yay Kelsi!

Our little girl

...is 6 months old today (the 14th)!!! She's growing up so fast! We're so grateful for her. She is seriously the sweetest baby ever. She's got such a cute laugh and she smiles all the time (except when I'm taking a picture because she's too interested in the camera). I just love her cute personality (even when I swear she gives me a "what are you thinking, Mom?" look). She loves learning and exploring new things (toys, foods, textures, sights, etc.). It's a lot of fun for us.

Here is a picture of Kaylee less than a week old followed by a bunch of recent pictures from my cell phone. I can't believe how much she's grown!

Kaylee and Daddy taking a nap. She slept with her arm behind her head back then too. Look how tiny she is!

Stylin' girl. Sometimes she actually keeps her sunglasses on for a few minutes before deciding to eat them.

Check out those thighs! Little chunk.

Bundled up for a walk.

This is one of my new favorite baby items, as well as Kaylee's. You put the food in the mesh bag and she can feed herself. She's eating her favorite: avocado.

Another sunglasses picture. These were some I tried on her while at a store, so I could send the picture to Joel.

On a walk again. Can you believe those blue eyes?!

Kaylee really loves her food! She had a lot of fun this day. After eating her avocado I poured some carrots on her tray and let her splash in them. She loved it! It was messy, but worth it.

P.S. We have a counter at the very bottom of our blog that shows exactly how old she is.

Nate's coming home!

My brother, Nathan, is getting home from his mission next Wednesday (May 21). I'm so excited! He's been a wonderful missionary serving in the Michigan, Lansing mission for the past 2 years. I can't wait to see him and for him to meet my amazing husband and daughter! He'll also be meeting 2 other nieces for the first time (Macee and Jinnie) and seeing Ryan for the first time in almost 4 years!

I've been trying to explain Nathan to Joel so that he'll know what to expect, but I don't think I'm doing him justice. He is very driven, but also loves to have fun. Here are a few pictures that are totally Nate...

This is one of my favorite pictures of Nate from before his mission. My friends saw Nate at a BYU football game and had to get a picture for me. I'm glad they did! Nathan loves BYU football!

Mom, I chose the picture you're crying the least in. Here's my mom putting Nate's nametag on at the MTC.

I have no idea who that other guy is or where this was taken. It's Nate and (I'm guessing) a companion on his mission.
This grosses me out, but I had to put it on. This is some guy skinning squirrels. Here's a quote from one of Nate's emails, "On Wednesday we got home from district meeting, and we had a message on our answering machine from a part-member family that they were cooking up some squirrel if we wanted some. So we went over there and had some squirrel for dinner. Squirrel stew to be more exact. It was actually really good...tastes kind of like chicken." Yuck!
Nate with 2 other missionaries in front of one of the lakes.

Poll

I have no clue why the poll choices aren't showing up. Joel and I have tried messing with the colors and everything, but nothing is working. If you highlight the options you can read what they are. (FYI: Curly is the 1st choice, Straight is 2nd)

Help me!!!

I need some major help with looking older. Yesterday I was at the temple for my cousin, Sara's, wedding and a temple worker told me I looked too young to be in there. I said something along the lines of, "yeah, I look young for my age." She responded with, "yes, but I mean you look really young. I would guess you were 14."

WHAT?!?!

14?!?!?

I'M 24!!!

It's not as though I was wearing some trendy dress or something. Actually, I thought my shirt and skirt looked quite mature. I was wearing makeup too, so it's not like that would throw her off.

I realize that someday I'll love for people to think I'm 10 years younger than I really am, but not now. Not when I have a baby and people think I'm a teenager.

This lady isn't the first person to tell me I look a lot younger than I am. A month or so ago a good friend of mine told me I can easily pass for a 16 year old. And a few years ago I always had adults looking shocked when they asked me which high school I went to and I informed them I was a senior in college.

So.... I need suggestions. What can I do to look older/more mature? Do I need to change my makeup? Clothes? What?

How about my hair? I just barely got it cut. It goes to my armpits. The hairstylist I found is an expert with curly hair, but you kind of have to do it curly every day to get the look she does (you have to train the hair). So here's a big question for everyone (I think I'll put up a poll about it): should I go curly or straight the majority of the time? Right now I do about half and half, which is nice to be able to do, but if I continue with it neither way (straight or curly) will look as good as it can. I realize it's hard to decide since my hair doesn't look amazing either way yet. If I finally decide between the two I can get the perfect cut for curly/straight hair, as well as train the hair to do the one I want.

Also, would coloring my hair help me look older? I finally have it grown out to my natural color and was trying to keep it that way since I'm the worst person at touching up my roots, but if color will help me I might be willing to do it. I've heard of a new style where you put lowlights under the top layer and it give the hair more dimension, but you don't have to worry about roots.

Please please please help me! I don't want to look 16 or 14 or even 19 anymore!

I can't look at the cake anymore!

Seeing the pictures of the wedding cake is making me crave cake something terrible. And not just any cake. That exact amazingly delicious cake. I've decided to do another post, so it won't be the first thing I see when I open the internet.

This is a cute video. As I've mentioned before, Kaylee loves her food. This is her trying a pickle for the first time. Notice her complete lack of a reaction (maybe she's saving it for when we give her a lemon).

YUMMY!!!!!!!!

It was a few months after our 1 year anniversary, but Joel and I ate our wedding cake.... and it was delicious!!!!! Thanks to my mom who took the time to wrap it perfectly over many hours, so it would last this long. I should have made it look more presentable for the picture, but I seriously couldn't wait to eat it. The sad thing is I ate most of the cake by myself within 3 days. Yikes! It was so good though!

I'm so happy with the cake we had. It looked cool, matched my wedding colors, and tasted amazing! Here are some pictures from the reception (notice how nice we were when we fed each other the cake).