Daddy is at home all ALONE while MOMMY shops

So i am sitting here at the kitchen counter and Max is in the mini bath that sits in the kitchen sink and Ady is on a chair trying to wash him. It is hilarious, because every time Max splashes, Ady yells "what are you doing" and they both laugh.

Hailey has been in Salt Lake for hours with Kaitlin, who is helping us decorate and furnish our new house. So I got to come home and swap out the baby sitter and have been watching these two kids for about 2 hrs now. I actually really enjoy it because they can both interact so easily now. Max is crawling everywhere and grabs everything in front of him, which turns out to be Ady quite a bit. She of course thinks he is playing with her and loves it.

I am so stressed today because it is the last loan funding day for the month and we are swamped at work. It is kind of nice to come home and not need to worry about work til Monday.

Anyway I am really looking forward to relaxing this weekend. Better go get Max out of the tub.
Eric

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Addresses...

Ok tis the season for our annual Kandell Christmas card, They will be done this week so I will be starting to send them out next week, so if all of your who check this blog would like a Christmas card, and you do cuz they are going to be cute. Please email me you maling address to
hailey@thekandells.com And you will have a cute holiday card in your mailbox in no time at all!! Thanks so much!

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Dinner at CPK

Someitmes when we take our kids out to dinner, we just try to "get through it" but last night was incredibly pleasant. Adyson was well behaved, MAx was happy with his lemon,bread and toy and we had a good night out to dinner, I figured that in and of itself was blog-worthy.

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BYU GAME

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On Saturday when we got home from my parents cabin in Wyoming for Thanksgiving (pictures to come) Eric and Adyson headed off on a fun daddy/daughter date. They went to the BYU game, Eric pulled her over in the bike trailer with his bike so they could get some good parking. they had a ton of fun! Mostly cuz the Cougs won!!

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What I am grateful for..... Motherhood.

Of course being Thanksgiving week, We are always thinking of all the things in life we are grateful for, family, friends, home, health. All wonderful things. But, the thing I think I am the most grateful for in the whole world is Motherhood.
Not only for the wonderful blessing of being a mother but for having a wonderful mother to look up to and who I still need mothering from. I talk to my mom just about every day on the phone, I call her for advice, to tell her funny stories, frustrations and just to talk. We are like such good friends, and I believe the special friendship we now have is from the bonds we have as mother -daughter and from the understanding we have for each other now as we are both mothers. There is a certain understanding you get for you mother and a certain respect and love you can only have for them once you yourself become a mother. And I am grateful for that.
I am grateful for being a mom more than I could have ever imagined I would be. And not only am I grateful to be a mother, I am grateful that I enjoy it so much and just love this time of life. I could have never imagined how wonderful it would be. I feel truly like one of those people who finally finds "the thing" they were meant to do in life. Do you ever hear people talk about how much they love their jobs or their hobby, that it feels like their "calling in life" that is how I feel about being a mommy to Ady and Max. I love them more than life itself. I am grateful for all the wonderful things and experiences in life that prepared me to be a mom. Babysitting my younger siblings, at least one night every weekend from 7th grade through High School. It may not have seemed like a blessing then but it was. I didnt know how much that would prepare me for my own children. I dont even know how many diapers I changed before I graduated from High School, and speaking of diapers, nothing could have been a better mother hood preparation than the months I spent working in the orphanages in Ecuador. Which I still believe to be one of the best decision I have made in my life. Whenever I am tired with Ady and Max I remember the nights in the hospital with sick babies, changing 20-30 diapers right in a row in the middle of the night. Working all day from 6 in the morning then working all night at another shift. No sleep, literally. And truly understanding what being exhausted really is and I remember that I have done much harder and it helps me in my daily little trials. I am so thankful for those life lessons I learned there.
I am just daily grateful for the blessings that being a mom gives me, and for the love I am able to have in my heart for my children. And of course none of that would be possible without my perfect (mostly perfect) husband Eric who made me a mother to our children and who supports me and appreciates me more than I deserve. He is wonderful and I love him so much. And I am grateful for his mother Sue, my mother in law, who is so wonderful. I am grateful to her for being such a great mother to Eric and raising his to be such a great dad. And for the friendship and special relationship she and I have. I truly love her and I know that have such a good relationship with a mother in law is rare and I really treasure it.
And that is my favorite blessing this Thanksgiving season and for what I am feeling the most grateful for. Motherhood, it really is one of the best blessings we have to enjoy in this life. And I guess I just wanted everyone that I love who reads this blog to know how much I am truly grateful for it. There is nothing better. I am sure of it.

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I Love My High School Girlfriends!!

(from left to right) Kristin Defa, Katie (Dickamore) Flanders, Melissa (Shanley) Cook, Lindsey (Cooksey) Lunt, Callie (Salmon) Anderson, Andrea (Hyde) Mason, Hailey (me), Nicole (Night) Knight

Last night I went to the Gateway to dinner with all my high school girlfriends, except Chelsey and Lisa didn't make it! But we understand!! I love when we get together it's therapeutic to just chat about girl stuff and go to dinner with no kids, or husband (I love you Eric!) and laugh and have fun! It was good food and great company, I wish we did it more often. Afterwards we went to Anthropologie, and everyone hated this sweater I liked, so on principal, I am going to wear it to dinner next time we all go out. I love you girlies!!

here is the Anthro sweater only I thought was cute...... I think its the pop of the yellow with the stiching I like...hmmmm.... I don't know but it seems ......something........that i like.....I think.

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Ady plays "Mama" and Macky says "Dada"

This is Adyson's baby doll who she has appropriately named "baby" yesterday she came and got me to show me this... she had put baby down for a nap. That is my lavender eye pillow she had used for a cozy blanket and had even told us to "whisper" when we came to see baby sleeping. She loves playing mommy to her babies and is so sweet to them.


This past couple weeks making has been babbling a lot but now his favorite babble is "ah dadada" He smiles and kicks his legs and says it all the time. No, he dosen't know who DaDa is but that is what I am working on next but he is at least saying it.

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Congrats Keven and Lauren

So this adorable couple is my cousin Keven Burns and his now, as of today wife Lauren (Irvin) Burns . You may recognize her name since I talk about her all the time, she is my babysitter and Eric's processor. Yes, we share her. And she is fabulous. Ady loves her to death,sometimes when I ask Ady who she wants to play with she will ask to play with Lauren cuz she loves her so much. Keven is also a fabulous guy and we are so happy for them. This morning we went up to Salt Lake to their sealing at their beautiful luncheon at the Joseph Smith Building. Then tonight their lovely reception was at this awesome place in Lindon called Wadley Farms. It was awesome and they both seem so happy. Congrats guys and have fun on the Honeymoon. And girls, isn't Laurens dress beautiful? She looked gorgeous! And of course she they used my fav photographer Kelly at Gallery Photography and no I don't get paid to market for him, we just love him!

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Bug and Turtle

So Hailey and I were relaxing last night and about to go to sleep around midnight and i told her to look at the kids in the video monitor. So Hailey picks up the monitor and shows it to me and says "bug is okay, and turtle is okay." It was really funny, I guess you had to be there. It is true, Max looks like a turtle when in his crib. He has these really WIDE EYES and sticks his head up just high enough to look over the edge. Ady, well we have called her BUG ever since she was first born and the Dr rubbed all that jelly in her eyes and they were so wide open she looked like a bug. I just thought I would share this little story. I wonder what we will name our next child after? Hopefully not, dog or rat or something!

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Sunday Dinner at the Marsh Condo in Park City.

So last night for Sunday dinner we went up to Park City for dinner with Eric's cousin Amanda and her husband Nate and their baby Bjork, and with Eric's sister Lisa and her husband Steve and their 2 kids who frequent this blog often Easton and Zach. It was a ton of fun. Amanda made the best food and Lisa made a awesome dessert and it was fun for the kids to get to play together. Thanks for hosting Amanda and Nate! Let's do this more often...

Here are the 2 year old best buddies, Easton and Adyson

And here Eric is holding all the babies, Max, Bjork (who looks like she is sliding out of the picture) and ZAch

The babies again...

And Max was a happy camper to be playing with his cousins

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Freakin Birds...

I originally took these pics of the back of the new house so I can have a "before and after" once we finish the landscaping after we move in. But I put them on this post so you can visualize what I am talking about. You see that high vaulted all wood ceiling on our covered deck?? Well the other night we noticed that out there tucked up in the corner of the roof was a bird. Eric thought it was a hawk I thought it was a pigeon, we are probably both wrong but anyway we noticed one there and one the front porch up in the wood beam archway. Well them we noticed all these wood shavings on the deck and the front porch. Those dumb birds are pecking holes on the wood!!! Oh my gosh, Eric was so mad. Of course cuz we just closed on this house and within a week he have a baseball sized hole on our deck ceiling. So the next night we came with a bebe gun, Eric shot the bird and he claimed it flew off with its wing all funky, so he was pretty sure he either wounded it or at least scared it away for good. (on a more comical note his plan was to shoot it down then have his friend Bandele step on it, maybe that is not funny to you but you should have seen them both plotting inside the door of the house) Well, I went back last night and the freakin' bird was back in it's perch. And there were MORE wood shavings. So Eric immediately went over to kill it his time and it took off. Now today on Saturday he said we saw it when he went over there so he went to get the pellet gun and when he got back it was gone. So I am pretty sure we will be spending the weekend trying to stake out and kill this bird. Now for any of you animal lovers out there, don't think us cruel. I actually like animals, I never want to own any but I like them. And I don't want this bird to have to die but I for sure am not willing to give up my beautiful wood paneled roof. Ya know?.... so here is how I am going to make my peace with my part in the responsibility for this birds death. I will give it a proper burial. Just across our property line. I think that will be good enough. No animal rights hate mail please.

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Favorite Family Photo Style

Ok we have had 3 family photos taken this fall, one by a friend's friend who was up in town from Arizona. And two by our almost love him enough he could be family ..photographer Kelly Sansom of Gallery Photography. Now, if you know me you know I have never felt too comfortable going anywhere but Gallery, and Kelly did 2 photos for us this year one for just us in the studio and one at Exchange Place in Salt Lake when we were there for my "Smoot Family" shoot. And I am having a hard time decided what style of photo to do for out Christmas card this year...opinion? What do you all like the best? Seriously please give an opinion, a, b, or c? Also you aren't voting on this exact picture just the style...

A

B

C

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A Way Back Playback....

I had a moment of nostalgia today. I was driving in my car listening to the 90's station (90's on 9) on XM radio. And the song Wonderwall by Oasis came on. Now, I have to admit when I was in 7th grade, i loved Oasis, Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova were like the best songs that I had ever heard when i was 12 years old. So for old times sake I cranked it up, and suddenly I was having all these memories of being a seventh grader, walking down the halls of my junior high school, Centerville Jr. I was remembering people and places, and teachers. I even smiled to myself as I remembered the things I used to want to wear, like the high Dr. marten boots with shorts (ew...) I also used to want to where boys boxers under my jeans, yes thats right and its not like no mom would let me wear baggy "skater" jeans, so I wore boxer shorts underneath fitted jeans. What was i thinking? I also remember I wanted to wear like tee-shirts that said "stussy" on them and weird stuff like that, nothing feminine. It's a long way off from where I am now. I also remember my Jansport backpack and that I wrote all over it with white out, that liquid paper stuff. I wrote things like who I liked, bands I never heard of but that other people said were cool and lists of my best friends. I was enjoying having all these memories and remembering things I haven't thought about it a long time when the song ended and I realized I had arrived at Adyson's preschool to pick her up. And I thought for a second how long ago that was but how I could remember that like it was yesterday. Now I have 2 kids and all sorts of grown up responsibilities. But it was fun to think back .... so if you ever want a little trip down memory lane I suggest flipping on XM to the 90's or in Eric and his friends case the 80's. It's amazing how just some music can sure take you back....

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Max and Ady feed the Ducks...

So, I put my kids in the bike trailer and took them on a bike ride over to feed the ducks. Something Ady has always loved to do. We Took over some left over bread bowls from a Relief Society Lunch that I did. Anyway, I usually leave Max strapped in the bike trailer while Ady feed the ducks then we leave. But this time Max was squeakin and whining to get out, so i put him on the grass and threw bread around him and the ducks ate and came close to him. Well MAX TOTALLY LOVED IT! He was laughing and laughing when the ducks would "quack", it was so funny he would yell at them and giggle it was so cute, he was totally into it. That is until he found the leaves all around him, then he started eating those, so we left.

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Daylight savings is nothing but TROUBLE!

So last night Hailey and I were all excited because we got both our kids to go to sleep relatively early for a Saturday night and figured we could relax and just..... Well anyhow we had a very relaxing night and watched "blades of glory." What a funny movie. Well sometime during the movie we both realized that it was going to be daylight savings and that it was really only 10 pm, not 11 pm. OH NO, the kids are going to be up soooo early tomorrow we thought.

Fast forward to today and YES they got up early. It actually was not too early but the real problems started when Hailey realized that the kids naps were going to be all off for the day. So anyhow as I am writing this I am realizing that I am not really saying anything interesting or important so maybe this is why I dont blog as much as Hailey, HOWEVER the point is DAY LIGHT SAVING STINKS! It is friggin dark at 6 pm now, that makes no sense.

Well I too am very excited about the new house and cannot wait until we move in. I am so lucky because Hailey is spearheading the decorating and all that busy stuff. I am super super busy at work so it works out fine for me that Hailey wants to be in charge of the house stuff. Max and Ady are growing up so fast and it is so much fun to watch them together.
Eric

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Big News!

No, I have not taken a job as a janitor, these are the many keys to our NEW HOUSE! Yes, we just closed on a new house yesterday. We are super excited to be moving, to North American Fork. It's actually a interesting location, it is like on the border of Highland, Lehi and American Fork, but we are excited cuz we are 2 minutes from EVERYTHING, including the freeway.

I took Ady and Max over today to pick up the keys to our new house. And I was trying to get a good picture of the house to post, but it was difficult with the sun, anyway Ady said "take Ady's picture too" so I told her to go stand on the front porch and say cheese and she says "cheese mommy" then she looked at the house and says "say cheese house!" Classic Ady.

So here is the best shot I could get of the house, its not the best angle but with the sun over in the west a good angle was tough, plus the picture makes the house look really dark but oh well you can kind of make out what it looks like. And yes, we know we have a lot of landscaping work to do in the summer, thats one bad thing about a brand new house that has never been lived in, we have to do the yard, once it starts warming up next Spring. But we are really excited our goal is to move in, in January. Until then we are have some serious furniture shopping and decorating to do.

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Halloween Celebration from dawn til dusk

On Halloween Morning, I took Adyson (while Max was napping at home with a babysitter) to Pumpkinland, (never heard of it? Neither had I, its in Orem on Geneva) We met up with our favorite neighbors, Camille, Hailey and Gavin Miner and Haley and Sammy Hardy. The kids ran the corn maze, jumped on the inflatables, played on the playground, saw animals in the petting zoo, played with pumpkins, and of course posed for pictures. This place had it all and all for only $3. It was some good times.

Then after Pumpkinland, it was nap time for my kids. I didn't get a very good nap out of Ady cuz we had to wake up earlier to go to our Ward Halloween Party, at the church. They had games and booths and treats. And everyone in our ward was all dressed up, here we are again with the Miners. Ady and Gavin just love to play together. And we are pretty sure max is crushin' on Hailey (Hailey Miner, the baby, not his mom Hailey)

Then straight from the party we met Daddy at home, ate dinner and headed off for some neighborhood trick or treating. Max just rode around int he stroller, but Ady knocked on every door and as soon as they put the treat in her bag she would pull it back out and say "open it daddy". It as a really fun night. Ady was loving all the candy, I have no idea how much she actually ate last night, I probably do not want to know. But went I went to brush her teeth she had a bit-o-honey (ew) hidden in her cheek. Seriously Ady? Anyway, all in all we had a very Happy Halloween!

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