The Foote Family

Big Sister and Little Brother

2011-01-31T00:54:00.005-07:00

So any of you that know me know that there are a bunch more pictures that you have not seen yet. Now these were just with a flash in our house, we will get some studio shots soon, but these should keep you happy for a few days.

So if you look back about 9 months or so you will notice a post about our garden growing, and Sarah wearing a "Big Sister" shirt. Well one of our friends gave David a "Little Brother" shirt that matched perfectly! So we had to get them wearing the shirts together.

So here is the quick update. David is doing great. He sleeps through the night, is totally potty trained, and got accepted into BYU starting next year. . . and I am dork. Seriously though, we are all doing well. Getting just enough sleep to get by, although last night was pretty good. If that is a sign of nights to come we just might survive.

And without further adieu

hotoshoot/David-1st-shoot-111/1165309111_ogCCN-500x500.jpg" title="" alt="">

David Steven Foote

2011-01-17T23:56:00.009-07:00

So with Katie being pregnant and the due date being tomorrow we were thinking about when our little guy might make his appearance. I kept telling people he was going to be born on either 1-1-11 or 1-11-11, well New Years day came and went and no kid. So I said, for sure he is coming on the 11th! If not Katie was going to have to wait until November and 11-11-11. Having a cool birthday is cool I smile every time I write 3-8-83 and I thought it would be nice to give a cool birthday to our little guy.

Well, he decided to be obedient and...

at 8:16 PM on 1-11-11 David Steven Foote was born (I suggested to Katie that if she could wait about 3 more hours he could be born at 11:11 - if looks could kill I would not be typing this right now. My family has a bad way of helping people deal with pain - humor - it works for minor pain, doesn't help at all with labor type pain - unless you consider making people mad helping.)

Anyway, we have had our little guy for a few days now and he is awesome. Sarah loves being a big sister and is a big help with him and we have had Katie's awesome mom helping out as well. So Katie and I have pretty much just been able to enjoy him.

Here are a few photos from the hospital. I took a TON more today, but have yet to edit them. You can also see the full set here

Katie looking way to good for being about to deliver a baby. When we walked into the hospital to check in she was between contractions and looked like we were out for a stroll in the park. They really didn't think she was in labor because she was so calm and relaxed and not hurting at the moment. The elevator right outside the door to labor and delivery was a different story - they would have not doubted for a second had they seen her in the elevator!

Here is our little guy just a few minutes after he was born - pretty cute eh?

Sarah was really excited to meet her new little brother

Both Grandmas were pretty excited to see him as well

Here is David, Steven, and David Steven - he was named after two pretty great guys!

Yes I was there too - we are now a family of 4 that is crazy!

Our little guy is ready to celebrate! This is a mini sparkling cider that they brought for each of us with our celebration dinner (steak and shrimp and pasta prima vera . . . pretty good!)

It is late and I am tired. Check back in a few days for some more cute photos. I promise to do at least a little better at blogging for at least a little while!

Foote Family Christmas Letter

2010-12-24T15:17:00.006-07:00

Merry Christmas - For those of you that didn't get our letter in the mail (sorry, we ran out) Here is the picture we sent and bellow is the letter, you can click on them to see full sized

Photography

2010-10-15T17:27:00.004-06:00

I have really enjoyed experimenting with a new photography technique called HDR Photography or High Dynamic Range Photography. I really like the way Trey Ratcliff of www.stuckincustoms.com describes what HDR is. He basically says that we have all been an amazing place - take a picture - and then when we show someone we say something like - You really had to be there - or the picture doesn't really show it. That is because our eyes are so much more advanced than any camera. But we can cheat with cameras - that is where HDR comes in. What HDR does is take several pictures of a scene and combine them into one photo - so the really light spots are not washed out and the really dark spots still have detail - the same way your eye could see the scene. Anyway, here are a few examples I have taken over the past couple of months.

For the full effect feel free to click on the photo and go to the larger size on flickr

Venetian Grand Entrance

The cliffs out the front door of my grandpa's ranch

Same as the last picture but with a little patriotism added in!

Scum Pond - we hiked up a mountain to get here - so I took some pictures of it and everyone made fun of me. I think it turned out really cool though

The famous Rainbow Bridge at Lake Powell - bellow you can see the original (or one of the three that I used to combine above) The original is edited as I would have edited in the past. So hopefully you can see the difference and why I am excited about this new technique.

Viva Bike Vegas/I wanted to die

2010-10-11T01:28:00.003-06:00

So somehow my little brother Steven talked me into doing a 115 mile ride with him. Once I was committed I decided to help him convince my dad he should do it to. so Saturday Oct 9 at 6:30 AM we left downtown Las Vegas only to return 10 hours later - and much more tired.

There were 1500 riders that left with us and it was fun to leave town with cops at every intersection stopping traffic for us. I felt great the first 40 miles. I had energy, we were passing way more people than were passing us. We were doing really well and ahead of the pace I was hoping for (a little slower than what Steven wanted)

One of the highlights of the ride was the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge. It is scheduled to open for traffic in about a month, but what better way to test it than to send 1500 bikes out on it right? It was a cool bridge and neat to cross the bridge before it opens to the public.

The three of us on the bridge

The view of the dam

This is about where the fun stopped (other than a few pick me ups from family) We had crossed the bridge and had to ride up the biggest, longest, steepest hill of the entire course into boulder city. Not only that, for the first time in several years my asthma was starting to act up. I have exercise induced asthma and I felt it a little bit about 10 days before the ride, but just hoped it was because I had a stuffy nose and shouldn't worry about it. Little did I know what I was in for.

So about halfway up this hill I had to stop and lie down and try to breathe, I was getting dizzy and light headed and decided I better stop. After about 5 minutes I felt better and we went up the rest of the hill. Through Boulder City. Into Henderson where my wife, daughter, mother, sister and sister in law were all waiting to cheer us on as we pulled into the lunch stop. What a blessing it was to feel their love and support, not to mention encouragement. I was seriously considering calling it quits right there (halfway) but Katie and Sarah told me that they knew I could do it. So I was going to.

One funny quote from lunch - my mom was refilling our water bottles for us and said, "I actually feel awkward not wearing spandex pants."

Sarah told me her sign says, "I love my daddy" I love my kid!

After lunch was by far the hardest part of the ride for me. Even though the Boulder City hill should have been worse, on our way up Horizon Ridge we were trying to keep up with this group of about 30 other riders who were really cranking up the hill. I started breathing heavy, then heavier, then hyperventalating. I felt like I was only using 1/4 of my lungs -through a straw - if I tried to breathe deep I went into a coughing fit and then couldn't breathe at all. But I really wanted to keep up, if I could only make it to the top of the hill I would be ok. I had to push through it, plus I was falling behind my dad and brother. Well I caught up to my dad at a red light, clicked my shoe out of my pedal and fell over and started shaking. Several people started freaking out. I told them I was fine and then laid down in the shade for 10 minutes. Again, I felt like quiting, but I really wanted to ride a century (100 + mile ride) So I got up and kept riding.

Katie and Sarah met up with us again out by Red Rock, which was nice, I really needed another pick me up, and then said they would be waiting for us at the finish line.

Dad and I completing our first century!

There wasn't anyone else to take the picture so we took turns. This is Steven and I at the 100 mile mark.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I had to go much slower than I wanted as my lungs wouldn't let me breathe normally still. I could use about 50% of my lungs, and for hours after the race my breathe sounded wheezy, like I was breathing through a straw. But I finished the race, and we made it to the finish line 17 minutes before they packed up and left. It was not the experience I was hoping for, and I know I could have done much better. My legs are not really sore and I could tell my muscles had plenty of strength left. I just couldn't breathe.

One of the best parts of finishing was getting a big congratulations hug from Katie and Sarah, and for them to tell me that they were proud of me.

So I didn't die and my wife and daughter are proud. Sounds like success to me. But give me a month or so before you ask if I will do it again next year!

The finish line at last!

Yes her shirt says "I love Daddy!" Does life get better? I submit that it does not!

I love my family! They were so nice to support me and drive all over town cheering for us!

Team Foote - victorious - ready to collapse (at least I was)

This was Sarah during the last picture wiggling her fingers and making funny faces to make sure we were smiling while our picture was taken. Super cute!

Lisa and Miguel

2010-10-11T01:14:00.003-06:00

So I need to learn to spell my sisters soon to be last name. She just got engaged last weekend to Miguel Tixsdfiasdfnaera or something like that. (Miguel, at least I kind of know how to pronounce it right?) So much good stuff happening in our family right now! Miguel is awesome and Lisa is super excited. They are going to be married in March (when Miguel's family can come over from Germany, or Portugal or where ever they are)

Here are a few photos I took of them a few months ago on a family hike.

HAHA - I love this picture - I don't know what they are unsure about - perhaps why they would make those faces while I was taking pictures that might end up on our blog?

John and Jaime

2010-10-11T00:40:00.002-06:00

So Katie's little brother John got engaged a few weeks ago! We are super excited about this and they will be getting married the Tuesday before Thanksgiving! That is coming up quick! We love Jaime and are glad she is joining our family.

We have a better picture (or over 500) where you can see Jaime's face but we decided not to post them yet. They are prewedding wedding pictures. They came down last weekend and we spent the day all over town getting tons of fun wedding pictures so they can relax (at least more) the day of the wedding. Get the group shots done and get over to the reception (which is like 2 hours after the wedding!) We decided not to post them yet since we don't have their permission.

Congrats John and Jaime!

It's a boy!

2010-10-11T00:30:00.004-06:00

So we just found out. . . about 2 months ago. . . that we are going to be having a boy! As you can guess I am super excited to have a boy. I know we want a couple of each, but it is nice to be sure we will have a boy in the family. After all, I would feel bad making my girls mow the lawn, take out the trash, dig post holes and prune the trees. Not bad enough not to make them do it, but I would feel kinda bad. So Sarah, count your blessings and baby boy Foote - look out - I am working on my list already.

Too bad everything we bought for Sarah is pink!

Sarah's first day of preschool!

2010-10-11T00:19:00.002-06:00

Our little girl is growing up so dang fast. We spent the last 15 minutes looking at old photos of her and she has grown soooooo much in the last year. I know, everyone says that they grow up too fast. . . well guess what - THEY ARE RIGHT! Except for the missing the infant infant phase - maybe Katie misses it more than me, but I am not looking forward to waking up every 14 minutes all night and changing a million diapers and getting spit up on all my ties again. I really love having kids, and there are some great things about the first couples of months for sure. But they go the right speed, everything else is too fast, but those first months are pretty rough. I am sure I will change my tune the first time I hold that little dude. But I am kinda scared to have a infant again. I don't remember how to take care of a baby, since with Sarah we just "run and jump and play" (as Sarah would say).

Anyway, enough about me being nervous about another kid, the title of this post is Sarah's first day of preschool. Katie signed Sarah up for Miss Lacie's Montessori Preschool and Sarah is loving it. She was excited for weeks before and still gets excited and tells us "I get to go to preschool tomorrow" when we are putting her to bed. She only goes two days a week, but she is really enjoying it and getting a lot out of it.

Here she is with her new backpack - which she loves!

As you can tell she was so excited she could barely contain herself, or eat her breakfast for that matter!

Elder Brian Davis Farewell

2010-10-10T23:56:00.002-06:00

So we are obviously not the best at posting on our blog. I would say that we will do better, but that would probably be a lie. But we will try to do better.

So a while back - Aug 25th to be exact - Brian Davis became Eldeste Brian Davis - He is still in the MTC learning Norwegian and will soon be leaving for Norway! Before he left the whole Davis clan got together and I brought my camera and tripod and Jaime (she will be mentioned more in an upcoming post) took some pictures for us. I also took some of Brian with all of his nieces and nephews. They love Uncle Brian and Sarah prays for him every day! (We do too!)

It is so fun to hear from him every week. We really love that the MTC let's missionaries use e-mail now. It makes it so much easier to hear about all of the awesome and spiritual experiences they are having. We really love Elder Davis and are super proud of him!

It is really interesting - John Davis entered the MTC one year and one day after Steven Foote and then Brian entered the MTC one year and one day after Jason Foote (currently serving in El Salvador and rocking it! - with the spirit!) It is awesome to have missionary brothers. They are great examples to us.

Things are Growing in Las Vegas

2010-06-03T17:39:00.002-06:00

Good news, things are growing in Las Vegas. We have been working really hard this spring trying to get our garden to grow and it is going great! Our peas are already bearing fruit, we have some amazing raspberries, awesome spinach, great tomatoes. It has been really fun to see it grow. But that is not the only thing growing in Vegas. Enjoy the picture bellow. :)

P.S. If you can't read Katie's shirt it says "Everybody loves a pregnant chick"

Easter Fun

2010-04-11T22:17:00.000-06:00

Easter was great this year. Although we missed out on family conference time in Provo (because Sarah was sick...it was sad), we were still able to still have a really nice, relaxing, uplifting day.

Our day started with some yummy cinnamon rolls. (This has kind of become a tradition for us.....a not so healthy but worth it as a special conference treat splurge that I look forward to)

Then Sarah had a fun Easter egg hunt because the Easter bunny had visited our home.

Then our day continued by watching LDS General Conference on TV. I love to hear our modern day prophet and apostles. I always feel a renewed energy to be better when I hear general conference. It gives me a good uplift. It seemed like a lot of the talks were about women nurturing the children in the home and men using their priesthood righteously in their home. It was a great conference and I loved the talks. They were powerful. Anyone who missed out should definitely hit up LDS.org and go to the general conference archives. I loved them all, but a few of my favorites were President Eyring, Elder Holland, and Elder Ballard.


After both sessions of conference we had Easter dinner. This is the first Easter dinner I have cooked all by myself and it was scrumdiddlyumpscious, if I do say so myself. :)





There were rolls too to go with the jam. :)

Following dinner we decided to die some Easter eggs. It was fun!

The above speckled egg is Tyler's favorite egg he made.

Sarah made this really cool speckled pink egg. It was her favorite one.

These two were the best ones I made. I know, I know, not quite as cool as Sarah or Tyler's...they've got mad skills....but hey--I still like mine too! :)

After such a good day we were all tuckered out, and our beautiful Easter ended with this:

Sarah's Easter Dress and pink Chuck Taylors

2010-04-03T13:57:00.005-06:00

Katie and Sarah came to work to visit me the other day so I could spend some time with Sarah in the studio. We just got a new white background and I was excited to use it. It was so much fun, and we got some great photos. You can find them all on flickr and I will put a few highlights here. She got a new dress from Grams for Easter (and one from Grandma, but we couldn't find a good white jacket in time for the photo shoot, why do all cute little girl dresses h5ave to be sleeveless) and she also just got some new pink Chuck Taylors so we did a few wardrobe changes.

it was really cute, Sarah was super scared of the background. It is a big white piece of vinyl and it was impossible to tell the difference between the wall and the floor. Sarah could not tell where she could stand and was scared she was going to fall through. Once she took some with Katie she started to feel a lot more comfortable.

Here are a few of the favorites

This is when Sarah was too scared to be alone on the background.

This is Sarah shaking her booty - pretty cute :)

Sarah's dress a little closer up, and a cute smile ;)

Sarah was still a little scared, so Katie held her for a little while, and she gave me a really cute smile. I love my girls!

Cutest kid EVER!

Sarah decided to lay down, it was super cute, then she said she was going to close her eyes and go to sleep. This is how she closes her eyes. when I tell her to close her eyes and go to sleep she always says, "But that's tricky" now that I can see her in the light I can see why it is tricky, I don't think that would help me fall asleep either.

She loves to make funny faces

she ran over and sat next to mom along the wall. Turned out pretty good.

Katie took some pictures too, and some great ones, Katie was shooting and I told Sarah to do this. I love it, my favorite from the whole shoot.

This was her pose, she put her hands in her pocket, she did the sideways foot thing. ADORABLE!

cutest shoes ever.

well that was it, sorry I posted soooooo many photos. There were 245 to choose from and I skipped at least 30 more I wanted to post as well. I love my little girl and I am so glad I am able to capture these cute memories.

Royal Caribbean Cruise

2010-03-29T01:47:00.006-06:00

A Little Background: Tyler and I both grew up in close families. I am the third of five kids. Tyler is the second of six. The biggest gap between subsequent kids in any of our families is 4 years. The shortest gap is 10 and a half months. We have both been blessed to always feel close with our siblings and feel like they are our best friends. Because of this, we have always wanted our own family to be like that. We want Sarah to have some siblings to be best buds with. We know she would be such a good older sister.

Well, Heavenly Father's life plan for us isn't always the same as our life plan for ourselves. When we had Sarah we knew she was a miracle. After a year of not getting pregnant, I went on clomid and 9 months later we had Sarah. We have the book "You Are My Miracle" and I have read it to her a million times because she truly is our miracle baby.

Well, about six months ago we went to the doctor (after about a year of hoping we wouldn't need medical help to have a second child). The doctor had me try clomid again. Well, long story short, it didn't work like last time. They will only let you take it for five times times before sending you to expensive fertility clinics. Well, the first four goes of it, my body did not react to it at all. So, in February, we were at our final shot at clomid. My doctor said I need to try to relax....so we decided to take a cruise for our last shot at it working, because hey...what is more relaxing than a cruise?! And, if it works, a cruise is less expensive than a fertility clinic, and hey...if it doesn't work at least we still got a fun trip out of it to soften the saddness, right?

So, we left Sarah in good hands (A BIG thanks to Grams and Grampy AND Grandma and Grandpa for watching her while we were gone. She had a BLAST!) and we took off to the Caribbean. We had lots of fun adventures. We stopped in Costa Maya, Cozumel, Belize, and the Cayman Islands. It was a blast.

Unfortunately, we know now that it did not work as we hoped it would, so a fertility clinic is our next step, and if that doesn't work, adoption or just waiting I guess. A quote that I like that Tyler got on a block for his birthday is by Neal A. Maxwell "Faith in God, includes faith in His timing." I know that things will all work out the way they are supposed to and I just need to remember that God knows what is best for me and for our family and have patience. We really are loving our lives right now, and enjoying having Sarah be such a fun age. She lights up our lives and we truly are grateful for the blessings that we have in our lives.

Our trip was STILL FUN and we enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pictures from our adventures.

Our first port was Costa Maya. Here is our cruise ship behind us, Liberty of the Seas. Oh yeah, and a MONKEY on my shoulder!!!!! It was so cool!

In Costa Maya we got amazing $20 massages on a beach near this one.

then went and saw some Mayan ruins.

They really like foot statues in Costa Maya for some reason, so we of course had to have pictures by them. :) (this is why it's kinda fun having a Foote as your last name)

Our second port was Belize. We did jungle ziplining and cave tubing and bonded with our tour group. It was a blast being with these awesome people. In fact, we now have two honorary sons in Chicago. Here is a picture with our "sons." :) They called us "mom and dad."

Our next stop was Cozumel. We were supposed to go scuba diving, but the weather did not cooperate (70 mile and hour winds the night before). I was sad about missing out on scuba. Instead, we rented a scooter (but sadly took no pic of us on it!) and cruised around together. We hit up the beach and ate some real Mexican food. It was so yummy!

Our last port was Grand Cayman, and we hit up Sting Ray City. This was freaking me out for weeks before we got there. Surprisingly, I thought it was awesome, and wished we could have stayed a little longer. The guide assured us that we were safe and that this was a different kind of sting ray than killed Steve Irwin. He even put the barb in his mouth to show us there was nothing to fear. The sting rays are super soft feeling and come rub against your legs like cats. It was crazy and freaky at first. Then, when I was starting to think it was cool, it was time to leave.

Our cruise ship was a blast too. When we weren't playing in port. We relaxed and hit up some mini golf, flow rider, amazing food, ice skating, shows, fancy shmancy formal night, pools, games, reading, and just had fun being together.

THANK YOU TYLER FOR TAKING ME ON AN AMAZING TRIP! YOU'RE THE BEST AND I LOVE YOU!!!!

Green Eggs and Ham

2010-03-29T01:31:00.003-06:00

Tyler is not a big fan of Corned beef and cabbage, so we decided to celebrate St. Patrick's Day the Dr. Seuss/kid and Tyler friendly way by having green eggs and ham. It was a lot of fun.

We also had green glow-in-the-dark forks that I got from the dollar store. It was awesome!

For dessert we had chocolate covered strawberries and kiwi. (I dipped them in green chocolate). Notice the nice kiwi in the shape of a shamrock? :)

Sarah, the goofy kid of ours

2010-01-11T08:08:00.002-07:00

So we had Aunt Kimmy over the other night and Sarah started acting goofy. She really wanted to watch a princess movie so we put Anastasia on, you can tell she was really into it... or not.

Then she decided to start jumping off the couch, head first, she wanted to keep doing it so we put pillow down, but she was doing the same thing without pillow first, 3 times!

Katie Bungee Jumping

2009-12-30T16:20:00.003-07:00

So we borrowed my cousins Jason's house for Sarah's birthday party last week, and let's just say, it's 1 part house, 3 parts amusement park. It was a blast, anyway, here is a video of Katie bungee jumping in the living room. :)

Opportunity Village Great Santa Run

2009-12-22T03:53:00.001-07:00

IMG_1002
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

This was our second year participating in this 5K and it was a blast! Everyone wears Santa suits and we try to win the world record for the most Santas. It was a lot of fun to do this with Mom and Dad Foote and Kimmy (we missed everyone else who couldn't come). This is definitely a fun tradition I think we will keep doing.

The Classic Santa Picture

2009-12-22T03:47:00.001-07:00

Sarah and Santa 2
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

Sarah was super excited to see Santa at the library until we set her on his lap then this happened. haha. It's classic. Don't worry she was happy as soon as she got a candy cane afterwards. No permanent damage done.

Upside down on the Y

2009-12-22T03:41:00.001-07:00

Hike the Y 048
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

This was Danny's idea that I talked about in the last post: at the top of the Y you have to lie upside down on it. It was scarier to do than it looks and all the blood rushes to your head and you feel pressure like you are going to fall. Anyway, Danny didn't have very much support. I was supposed to be holding his feet to make sure he didn't fall and die--I'm afraid I barely held onto his toes. Good thing he is fearless....right? heehee

Hike the Y and Thanksgiving

2009-12-22T03:17:00.002-07:00

Hike the Y 003
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

This year we got to celebrate a Foote/Kelly family Thanksgiving in Provo,UT. It was lots of fun and it was so good to see everyone. We squeezed in some dodgeball, temple sealings, Foote Christmas gift exchange, and even hit some black Friday sales while we were there. Even though it was a Foote Thanksgiving year we got a double bonus because we also got to stay at the Gunnells (my sister Mary and her fun family) house and go to the BYU vs. Utah football game with them too. It was a blast. Thanks guys! Tyler and I hiked the Y for the first time ever this trip with them and it feels good to say that I've done it. I can't believe I went to the Y all those years and never did it. I kind of regretted not doing it and so I feel good to have it checked off my list now. Yay. even laid upside down at the top of the Y (Danny's idea) and didn't die. I can say that I have lived now. And am officially a true blue cougar (now I just need to ride the Cougar because apparently that is another cliche BYU student thing that I missed out on) ;)

My little girl

2009-12-22T03:00:00.001-07:00

Disneyland 2009 109
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

I honestly love this little girl more than words can describe. I am so lucky that I get to be her mom.

Sarah Loves Carousel Rides

2009-12-22T02:58:00.001-07:00

Disneyland 2009 085
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

The Carousels were actually one of the Sarah's favorite rides at Disneyland. She wanted to ride them over and over and over again. She also liked Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, and SMALL WORLD (it was decked out for Christmas already). And she loved seeing the characters.

Disneyland 2009 050

2009-12-22T02:50:00.001-07:00

Disneyland 2009 050
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

Okay--this was really awesome. I've never had this happen to me before at Disneyland (California Adventure), but we toured the Boudin factory and tortilla factory as we traditionally do because they give you a free small sample of the goodness. Anyway, we did the tour at Boudins and got a small sample in the beginning and then at the end this nice lady came up and gave us a FREE Mickey Mouse Sourdough bread in a bag!!! It made me feel HAPPY! I don't know if they were just doing this because they had extras or what, but let me tell ya I think it was awesome and they helped make Disneyland live up to it's "happiest place on earth" slogan for me.

Incredible

2009-12-22T02:43:00.001-07:00

Disneyland 2009 048
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

I think that all of the people in this picture are "incredible." It makes me happy. :)

Disneyland 2009

2009-12-22T02:38:00.001-07:00

Disneyland 2009 001
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

We went to Disneyland in late November. It was so much fun!!! Sarah really loved seeing all of the characters and she was so excited to be there. Seeing her excitement really made the trip magical for us. It was fabulous. It was fun to have Grams and Grampy there with us for a day too. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel so Sarah could still easily get a nap in during the day--I highly recommend it.

Halloween 2009

2009-10-28T21:01:00.009-06:00

Tonight we went to a Halloween party in my parents ward. It was HUGE - it was actually 3 wards, which helped us get away with sneaking in hee hee. We are going to be at The Ranch on Halloween, which is when our ward is having their party, and we really wanted to let Sarah dress up and get some candy. It was a lot of fun this year. Sarah loved saying "Trick or Treat." She got excited once she started getting candy (especially, and I cannot explain it, smarties!---I don't like those Smarties candies very much, but Sarah LOVES them.)

We decided to do another family themed costume this year, so Sarah was a bumblebee. I was a flower, and Tyler was a beekeeper. My parents went as convicts. I have to say I absolutely LOVE the fact that my parents still dress up for Halloween. It makes me happy.

Thanks Mom and Dad Davis for letting us crash your party!

I think we should've won a prize for having the cutest bumblebee in town. :)

2008 Halloween Revisit

2009-10-26T21:50:00.000-06:00

Okay....after I got to thinking about how much I like the fact that my parents still dress up, it dawned on me that I never got to brag about their costumes last year. They came to our ward's trunk or treat and had the BEST costumes ever. We took pictures and meant to post them on the blog last October for all the world to see how awesome they are, but we just never got around to it.... unfortunately, this usually happens with about 3/4 of the pictures I take to post on my blog "later."

Ok--you are in for a treat, my friends....here are some AwEsOmE costumes. I just love my family!

Check out those eyelashes!!!

Brian removes his facade! Long live the SUPER GEEK!!!

The cutest cowardly lion you have ever seen!

Sarah on the Harmonica

2009-08-29T16:22:00.006-06:00

Sarah stole my brother Jason's harmonica and was actually really good at it, as far as 1 year olds playing the harmonica go. She played it off and on for an hour or so and it was pretty dang cute. . . so I decided to capture some memories, I know, hard to believe, I actually took some pictures and video of my daughter, something I never do . . . or maybe I do it too much - either way, enjoy :)

-Tyler

I love Photography

2009-07-18T11:59:00.003-06:00

So I just bought some new toys for my camera that let me take long exposure images. A nice solid tripod (my old one died) and a remote trigger with a timer. I am going to get some more soon, but this was during the only cloudless night on our trip (and only this section of the sky was cloudless) Anyway, enjoy, and check out the stars! Click on the Photo to see a larger version of it :)

Park City Reminiscing--March 2009 trip

2009-07-17T03:03:00.021-06:00

Since our trip was short, we jam packed it full of fun. It was so relaxing and beautiful. Tyler and I had a pretty good snowball fight. We also had fun making snow angels, skiing, getting cozy with the "wildlife" haha, and swimming at our really cool hotel.

Okay, so we stayed at an awesome hotel called the Newpark Resort that was much cheaper than any other place ,and it was so cool. It was luxury!! We were so impressed with our find that we had to show it off. We would highly reccommend it if you are looking for a good place to stay. Please indulge us with these videos. haha. We also had a funny mishap you will see if you watch.

My Husband insert lovey dovey sigh here, heehee

2009-07-17T01:20:00.015-06:00

Ok---so I feel the need to brag for a minute. My wonderful husband is very modest. He is SO good at SO many things. I honestly don't know how I got so lucky.

They always told us in young womens to think of qualities that you want your future husband to have and then look at your list and realize that you need to have those things yourself if you want someone like that to be attracted to you. So, for example, if you want a husband that is smart, funny, handsome, understanding, has a testimony, worthy to go to the temple, good cook, athletic, artistic, good people person, humble, has good hygeine, etc....(trust me my list was pretty lofty..heehee), then you better look at that list and try to have or develop those qualities yourself. Well, I can tell you that my "PERFECT Husband/Dream Man" list was pretty lengthy...and I definitely did not have all of the qualities on my list myself. Somehow, I got extremely blessed because Tyler honestly does have all of my 'Dream Man' qualities. I cannot believe how lucky I am. I seriously married up! Woo-whoo. :) I am one happy woman.

Not only does Tyler have the qualities that were the most fundamental on my list and the very most important to me (ie-a strong testimony that the church is true, spiritual worthy priesthood holder, great with kids/good father, treat women with respect/gentleman, smart, strong, handsome, funny and fun, someone I can be myself around/feel comfortable with, caring, loyal, provider, a good friend), but ALSO he has some of the BONUS qualities like: he is strong--he's got some nice guns ;), musical--he is so good at the guitar and piano, artistic--he is great at photography, drawing and painting, graphic design/photoshop stuff, video editing, cooking--yes, you read correctly, my husband is actually a really good cook! and he is good at ironing too double bonus!!! he is so sweet and will help me around the house with things like laundry and ironing--my LEAST favorite chores!!!, he is good with finances and knowing how to be wise with our money, he is great with directions--something I seriously struggle with, knowledgeable with electronics, and pretty much anything I ever have a question on. I am SO grateful to have him as my partner for eternity. Thank you for being my perfect husband Tyler. I truly do love you with all of my heart!

Which brings me to the reason I was thinking about his awesomeness---One of his many skills that was a BIG bonus is he is an AWESOME skiier--both water and snow.

He is actually VERY good at both. I am SO impressed by his abilities---it usually makes me swoon to think about it. :) Back in February, Tyler and I took a nice little trip to Park City. It was my Christmas present to him because he deserved a little ski trip since he had only gone a few times since we've been married. So I think I mentioned a little bit about it...but I never got to post any pictures and I found them now--so here is a little blast from the past. Thank you to "Grams and Grampy (and Uncle Brian)" for watching Sarah so we could enjoy our first trip away from her.

One of my favorite things!

2009-06-21T17:26:00.001-06:00

Sarah is Cute 235
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

One of the best parts of being a mom is the snuggles. They melt my heart!

What We've Been Up To...for the past three months....again

2009-05-02T16:42:00.000-06:00

Sorry our blogging has been pretty non existent lately. Does anyone even check our blog anymore?

Here are a few things that have happened in the past 3 and a half months:

1.) New Calling--twice! I moved from Nursery Worker to Primary Secretary to Young Women 2nd Counselor. Woo-whoo!

2.) Trip to So Cal for Grammie's Surprise 80th Birthday and belated celebration of Grandpa Brown's too *along with a fun trip to Knott's Berry Farm, Seaworld, and visits with family! It was so good to see everyone!

3.) Our Backyard got put in and we like it!

4.) Tyler's birthday along with a celebratory ranch trip

5.) Our First trip away from Sarah---Park City ski trip

THE SARAH UPDATE:

Our little sweetie is growing up so fast.

She loves to say daddy, outside, fish, quack, woof woof (while chasing down any dog she sees), shoes, cheese, hi, yes, and her all time favorite word---NO!

She loves to be outside and she loves animals.

She also likes to be silly and make people happy. She will tickle people and say "tickle tickle."

She likes to try to jump and say "ump."

She makes us so happy. We pretty much think she is the cutest girl in the world and recently we were validated by a few strangers. A lady came up to us in Panera and told us that she wanted us to try out this new diaper technology and give her some testimonials if we would be willing to. She said that Sarah was one of the cutest kids she had ever seen and that she sees a LOT of kids. Also, I was in Walmart and a guy came up to me and said that Sarah was so cute and would she be interested in possibly being in a Gerbers commercial. He took my information and said he would be in contact for an audition for her. I took these as huge validations that I do indeed have the cutest little girl in the world! :) but I didn't need them to tell me so....

At Sarah's last doctor's appointment we were advised to get her a kid potty so she could become comfortable around it. She has proceeded to stand in it, take it apart, sit on it with her clothes on, and put her toys in it. haha! Whenever Tyler or I go to the bathroom she says potty and comes running in with us to play on her potty. I am afraid she may have become a little TOO comfortable with her potty, but it makes us smile anyway and she is definitely not scared of it so that's good. Hopefully soon she will be using it too. We sure are ready for that, but it will probably be a little while still...unless she is a child prodigy...which she could be. She is a smart cookie. :)

Sarah also was so cute at hunting for Easter eggs. It was AWESOME. I will put pictures up soon as soon as I download them onto the computer.

Also, congrats to Jason (Tyler's brother) who got his mission call to El Salvador, San Salvador (East I think??). Tyler will be happy to have someone to habla espanol with all the time. Woo-whoo. That will be awesome.

And...lastly, I hope that my brother, John, and sister-in-law, Lisa, are having fun on their foreign adventures. John is in Mozambique teaching AIDS and HIV prevention and Lisa is in Jerusalem on her third study abroad. I am so jealous, but hope they are having tons of fun! Love you guys.

And if you made it to the end of this post---congratulations! You read a short novel. :) Pictures will be coming soon!

Katie's slideshow below!!

2009-01-23T11:22:00.003-07:00

Alright so Katie made this slideshow last night and spent tons of time writing what each picture was about - then we found out you can't see her comments - BUT if you click on the slideshow you can see all of the pictures and see what Katie wrote. Does that make sense?

Just click on the slideshow - you'll see.

The Last Four Months in A Few Pictures

2009-01-23T03:03:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year!!! (a little late)

2009-01-07T01:38:00.013-07:00

At this moment I am reminded of one of my favorite comedians, Brian Reagan, when he talks about buying a card for an "old" baby because time passed you by and you can't buy the "new baby" card anymore..because now the baby is 12 years old. haha....

Well, I feel that way because I kinda let time slip me by....with blogging. Sorry to anyone who has actually been checking our blog the last 2 months for updates, only to have the same old turkey post load on their screen.

Jokes.com

Brian Regan - Greeting Cards

Turkey Time!!!!!!

2008-11-18T22:09:00.004-07:00

For Family Home Evening last week we had our first annual Turkey Off! It was a ton of fun.

It was my week for the lesson, so I decided (in honor of the holiday this month) to have a lesson on gratitude and President Monson's talk from General Conference, Finding Joy in the Journey. I loved hearing this talk when he first gave it at conference, and it was equally great to study this talk again for Family Home Evening. President Thomas S. Monson truly is a prophet of God. One quote from his talk that we loved and wanted to share is the following:

"Said one well-known author: “Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend . . . when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”"

This quote helps me realize that even though bad stuff will happen in my life, if I focus on the positive and remember to be thankful for my blessings, I can still be happy. I am really grateful for that and for the joy we can experience here on earth.

And speaking of joy...after our lesson we had some joyful activities going on. heehee We decided to have a TURKEY OFF for our fun family activity and we went into separate rooms to secretly create our own "gratitude turkeys." Which are now up for public vote. So.....without further ado, PLEASE cast your vote as to which gratitude turkey is the WINNER of the first annual FOOTE FAMILY TURKEY OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which turkey do you think is the BEST???

VOTE NOW!!!

DO IT!!!

We know ...it's hard to choose because they all 3 look so amazing.

Vote for your favorite. :)

All the cool kids are doing it.

Number 1 (this is a tracing of Sarah's cute little hand, not an easy feat I might add)

Number 2

Number 2 (cool view of beak . . . not too shabby eh? Not that I am trying to sway the vote)

Number 3 (I would like you all to know that this is hand drawn, not printed or purchased, can we say skills? I think so)

As I said, it is not going to be an easy choice, so think it through and choose wisely.

Now it is up to you, the voting public. So let's get out the vote!

Danny Gans - Las Vegas' Entertainer of the Year

2008-10-01T21:10:00.007-06:00

So, in case you couldn't tell from the title of this post . . . Tyler took me to Phantom as he promised he would for our anniversary. . . or maybe not. . . but I am still hoping :)

Actually, we went and saw Danny Gans for a fun date night. It was awesome!!!

Danny Gans has got some mad skills with his impersonations. We both really liked his Frank Sinatra, John Mayer, and Michael Buble. He was way good, and he sounded completely different from one song to the next. It was impressive!!! He even did a pretty good Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Cosby.

We totally got hooked up with these tickets (which was nice, and why we felt comfortable splurging on a Shirley Temple . . . which was good . . . ) thanks to my awesome husband! Free tickets are a very nice thing, let's just say, in Tyler's words "we know a guy who knows a guy" or something like that. Anyway the show was totally fun.

Not only did we get some free tickets we got to sit in the box at the back of the theater. It was totally awesome! We were lucky for once! (honestly we have really bad luck a lot of the time, we just have to laugh at the bad stuff that happens!) But this time we totally lucked out, we got this little room thing in the back with actual chairs and LEG ROOM and a little table for our drink, and it was SOOOO NICE! It made the show that much better.

Thank you Mom and Dad for watching Sarah so last minute for us!!!!!

Anyway, if you are in town and looking for a great show, Danny Gans is not a bad way to go! But he is only here until November, and then who knows what he is doing.

This is the view from our awesome box seats!!!!!

This is me enjoying the box, pretty good eh? Tyler thinks we should try to buy the wallpaper from them when they close in November! I am thinking not.

Tyler told me to write that he is showing just how big our box was . . . but in fact, he is doing the YMCA and mocking about 300 drunk people!!! haha!!!

I couldn't post about Danny Gans without posting this picture of the ugliest shoes in the world. When Tyler was in line for our beverage he saw these shoes and let's just say I am glad his phone has a camera.

Who you gonna call . . . The Exterminators!!!

2008-09-28T22:36:00.010-06:00

So pretty much our house has . . . or rather had an infestation of bugs. Now we did not have the typical bug problem you might expect, I know you are thinking gross, cockroaches, or ants, or maybe termites, maybe hornets, or wasps, or even the dreaded killer bee! But no, we had a malady of a different, some might say luckier (according to Mulan anyway) we had a colony of crickets making themselves at home in our home.

I know what you are thinking, crickets couldn't be all that bad, they are nice little bugs and quite cute (again, reference Mulan) and their chirping is actually quite calming. I would agree with this statement, we actually have an alarm clock that has soothing sounds and one of them includes cricket noises. I agree that crickets are great for camping, and ambiance, but up close and personal they are little beasts!

I don't know how many of you have had truely close encounters with crickets, but they are actually grosser than you would expect. They get into EVERYTHING first of all, and show up when you least expect. For example, you are looking forward to a tasty bowl of shredded wheat in the morning (alright actually I eat Captain Crunch, I just wanted to try and sound grown up)you open up the cupboard and grab a bowl, when all of the sudden a cricket leaps from the bowl onto the counter! You grab a paper towel to smash it with and he dives to the floor!!! You don't have shoes on so you are still depending on the paper towel as your primary weapon and barrier! You strike, he eludes, you attack again and get him! GROSSSSS!!!! Now you have smahsed cricket all over the floor and you have to clean it up! How tasty is that Captain Crunch sounding about now? Not very, I can tell you from experience! Not to mention you now feel like every dish you have is unsanitary, as well as the counter, and especially the floor where your little girl is going to be crawling.

I have stared them down many times when I try to go to the bathroom, and let me tell you they hold their ground! Not only that they are fast, you try to smash 'em and they jump away and under a couch, or behind the cabinets, under the fridge, or into your DIAPER BAG!!!! Not only that, we now know that crickets can climb walls!!! Did you know that!?!?!?! Like little spiders! I walked into our guest room and there was one hanging from the ceiling!!! I took a picture with my iphone for evidence of the devilish abilities!!!!

So to put aside your doubts - YES it is a big deal to have a cricket infestation! That is why we called the exterminator! Thanks Preventive Pest Control! You guys rock!! We are now cricket free, and will hopefully be bug free for a long time!!! Yipee!!! WooHoo!!!!

The Lazy Days of Summer (at least as far as posting is concerned)

2008-08-24T23:01:00.016-06:00

You may have noticed that our blog has not changed much in the past . . . uh . . . about 2 months!!! Yikes! That is awful I know, and I apologize for not keeping everyone posted on what we have been up to, which has been a lot!
So in the last two months since we posted we have done some awesome things -

We have traveled the globe (Particularly the Philadelphia, California, Utah, and Portugal areas of the globe).

We picked up my younger brother, John, from his full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (see the last link on the sidebar) and traveled Portugal for a week (including an overnight stay in a castle!) It was awesome.

My younger brother had not seen Sarah in person yet, and it turns out that Sarah really loved John right from the first moment they met. (I think John might like her too . . . she is pretty likeable you know!)

I'm so proud of him and so glad he's home!

We also had a nearly full day layover in the City of Brotherly Love and saw some cool sights and ate some great Cheese steak!

This is the real deal. Yum!

We went to a really fun Brown Family Reunion in Utah (for the Foote side of the family ha ha I have to clarify because we have two different Brown Family reunions, one on my mom's side and one on Tyler's Grandma's side, but don't worry we aren't cousins - we won't have deformed kids :) the geneology has been done on this!)

This is Sarah on the Fourth of July at the ranch. For Sarah, crinkled nose=REALLY happy. :) She really loves the ranch.

My Cowboy :) ~Too bad he forgot his hat!

Sarah has decided to start eating food - not baby food, but anything WE are eating. (She thinks she's grown up.) She also started crawling, pulling herself up, cruising, and...drum roll please....she can say mama and dada!!! But she doesn't say it all the time, she's only said it a few times, but VERY clearly, but I am excited anyway!

Her smile says it all. She likes REAL food!

She LOVES watermelon!

She's "cruisin."

We have been to the lake a handful of times (always fun).

Here is Sarah enjoying some sun.

And here she is after a fun filled day of sun.

We also traveled to Southern California for my Grandpa Sandy's funeral. This was not a sad funeral but a beautiful celebration of an amazing life! He was an amazing man and grandpa, and I am grateful to know that I will see him again someday.

This is Grammie and Grandpa Sandy at our wedding with my parents and us. We miss you Grandpa Sandy! And we love you very much Grammie.

Sarah also went to the beach and to Disneyland for the first time. She loved both of them, of course, she has great taste like her mama! hehe

Sarah--excited to start the day at Disneyland.

Getting some rays.

Mr. Muscles

Me and my girl!

We celebrated my 24th birthday (since it was 08/08/08, Tyler had to work all day, so luckily my family was around to celebrate it with me). Thanks guys! We celebrated my sister, Stephanie's birthday, too, and enjoyed throwing her a baby shower. I am so excited to have another nephew soon!

Tyler and I also got to celebrate our 3 year anniversary! We had a pretty good time, but watched the least romantic movie on the planet for our date (Batman - The Dark Knight - It was dark and not romantic--Lame for an anniversary, but it was still nice to spend time with my hubby. We did go to PF Chang's for a really tasty dinner, and I loved spending time with Tyler! :) I want to give special thanks to my family for watching Sarah so we could go out.
We might try to go to Phantom of the Opera to do a make up Birthday/Anniversary celebration sometime soon too. I'm excited if we do.

I am so grateful I am married to this man for eternity! It's been a wonderful 3 years. I love you, Tyler!

I will try to do better about posting! ;)

And, for all the family reading this that I got to see this summer, I loved being with you. Thanks for helping make my summer awesome! Love you!

Cruisin' smart

2008-06-22T22:16:00.012-06:00

So you might have read the post below and thought that our bikes are pretty cool. But recently we purchased a cooler form of transportation. Yes, that is right . . . the Foote Family purchased a smart car!!! We love it!!!

It is not quite as economical as the bike . . . but it is pretty close! It gets 47 mpg (take that $4.25 per gallon) and can go up to 90 miles per hour (no joke . . . it really can) and it is really cute and small!!! Not only that, but also it can park practically anywhere very easily. In fact, I parallel parked it perpendicularly today! I just got out smiling because parking never felt so good. The truck I parked next to was actually sticking out farther than me!!! I love it!!!!

The one down side to the smart: it only seats two people . . . and we can't put a car seat in it . . . so Tyler gets to drive it :( I guess that is an upside for him . . . and it will be a fun date car for us.

There is currently an 18 month waiting list at all of the smart dealers, and we just decided to get one for sure on Friday. 'How did we get one then?' you ask. Autotrader.com hooked a brother and a sister up! Friday around noon Tyler called me and asked if I wanted to drive to California for our date night to buy a car. (We have been looking at getting a second car and had discussed the possibility of getting a smart to go along with Tyler's other business idea, but thought we were at least a month away from buying one until Friday at noon when he found this beauty!) So we drove to Cali and bought a car . . . we are now broke, but we got a cool car, and if necessary we can sell it pretty easily . . . we think :) So if anyone is looking to buy a smart car we will review all offers, however I am kind of attached to it already.

Here are a few photos:

Yeah, I pretty much love it.

Look how good my husband looks with a sweet baby and a sweet car!

As you can tell Tyler likes the car too!

What a good looking picture . . . good looking baby . . . good looking man . . . good looking car . . . good looking house . . . man I'm lucky!!!

Look out Lance Armstrong here we come!!!

2008-06-22T18:29:00.006-06:00

So we got some bikes recently and they are AWESOME!!!! I got Katie a bike and a trailer for Mother's Day and I got a bike for graduation (thanks Mom and Dad and Katie) and we haven't looked back. Katie's bike is a cross between a mountain bike and a beach cruiser, it is pretty fancy and a nice smooth ride. I got a road bike, it is pretty sweet let me tell you.

We love to go for bike rides, even though last night was really hot! (We went at like 8:30 at night and it was still like 95 degrees!!!! ) Why do we live in such a hot place?!?!? But it was really fun still, and once we were moving it wasn't crazy hot, just super hot. Anyway, we love our bikes and Sarah loves riding in her little trailer. She is way cute in it. So that is our new thing to do together as a family, so if anyone here in town would like to join us just give us a ring.

Here is a picture of all of us as we started our ride! You can see Sarah chillin' in the trialer. Thank goodness for tailgates and camera timers (and patient wives and daughters . . . this was try number 4)

I have been riding with my Dad and brother Jason as well (thanks for the shirt guys) so we are really getting into this biking thing. We actually rode all the way to the chapel and back one morning (there were still a lot of party goers out at 5:30 am) and it was an awesome ride . . . 19 miles round trip. We are planning on doing the loop at Red Rock, we tried it years ago and we got whooped by the trail, but this time I think we will be ready.

Sarah really loves bikerides!

Here is what the trialer looks like. Which we got a great deal on by the way. It was the display model at Costco (no assembly . . . woohoo ) and it was marked down by $40 since it was the display, talk about a double bonus!

More pictures of Sarah

2008-06-12T22:32:00.007-06:00

So we have been a little busy so we have not posted too many pictures of our little girl lately. So here are some of the long overdue photos of our little sweetie. She is so great, she is starting to do all kinds of fun stuff I have been waiting for. She is smiling, laughing, rolling over, playing, trying to walk, all kinds of fun stuff. Being a parent is awesome!!

These are two of my all time favorite pictures of Sarah, she will usually not smile at me when I have the camera, but this day she did. What a cutie!

Then mom decided to give her a little kiss . . . you can see how she felt about this. . . Katie claims that this is the face of pure contentment . . .

This is Sarah in her awesome pajamas, I love the little feet on the bottom, she didn't like that part quite as much as we did. She loves to rub her feet together ALL the time, and these got in the way a little. But dang she looks cute.

So . . . Sarah has a hard time with enjoying food, we had many failed attempts before this moment (and even more since) and those failed attempts had left us without a clean bib . . . so . . . we just got her ready for her bath for easier clean-up. Pretty smart if you ask me . . . I am thinking about trying it . . . or not. Anyway she still won't take solid foods, we don;t know what got into her this day, (other than the carrots) but man we wish she would eat.

So Sarah likes to squish her head into stuff while she sleeps. most mornings when we get her from her crib she has crept all the way up to the end of the crib and her face is smashed into the bumper, well she did the same on the couch. Just a few minutes after we put her down (don't worry we were watchnig her, we wouldn't let her roll off, I know some of you were worried about that) Anyway, here she is fast asleep... guess we made her sleep in her small basinet too long :)

Here are a couple of pictures of Sarah and Katie braving the cold to come to my graduation. They are awesome, and cute!!! I know it doesn't look too cold, but it was snowing just an hour or so before these were taken!!!

Isn't Sarah thoughtful? And how true that is . . . her Dad is pretty smart :)

Here are a couple of cute photos of Sarah just before things got ugly and the food came out. We love our kid!!!!!

Long Overdue Pictures

2008-06-12T16:40:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I am long overdue to post pictures, and I finally have transferred some onto THIS computer yay! (our other computer that has more good pictures on it CRASHED and so we are bummed. Hopefully the Dell techies can fix it, and you will see more good ones soon!)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and so if that is true, then I am about to publish a short novel. heehee So here are some good ones from the last little while. :) Hope you enjoy!

Our little family at Tyler's graduation

Tyler with 3 beautiful ladies. (This is Tyler with his cousins Catherine and Stephanie and sister-in-law Kedra who all graduated at the same time) Woo-whoo! The Footes ROCK! Congrats to all of you.

Tyler and Tyson Young. These guys are hilarious together. (even though they just look normal in the picture)

Yay! Us with the Gunnells. We love and miss you guys! The lighting is pretty bad in this pic. Sorry. Bytheway, look how cute our niece and nephews are. We love those kids. Thanks for braving the blizzard to come to Ty's graduation!

My parents were so nice to come for Tyler's graduation too. Thanks for driving down.

Tyler's parents came too, but that picture is probably lost on our other computer, when we get it up and running we will try to add it here :)

Video Finally Up

2008-06-12T16:28:00.003-06:00

We borrowed a cord to transfer the video --finally. Sorry it took so long. (Our transfer cord has a short or something and is busted.)
So I know that the video doesn't show any furniture and so that is kind of boring, but we just ordered some furniture yesterday, so we should get it within 15 days and then we can post pictures of the beauty of our home then. We are excited!

Video of our New Home

2008-06-12T14:41:00.004-06:00

Our First Home :o)

2008-05-29T01:30:00.003-06:00

We are proud to announce that after many months of house hunting, putting lots of offers in on lots of different houses, and saying lots of prayers, we finally got the one house we wanted the most of all! Yipeee! We are oficially homeowners, and we LOOOOOVE our house. It was definitely worth the wait (and the living in a tiny one bedroom wedding chapel apartment for 5 months) to get this steal. It was a "short sale" which means it was almost foreclosed on, but the bank agreed to let us buy it for less. It was buildt in 2006 and it is 2056 square feet. 4 Bedroom, 3 Bathroom. Close to both sets of "grandparents" (which is a real nice feature), and in an awesome ward. What more could we ask for? By popular demand, here are a few pictures of our lovely abode (and a video of it will follow as soon as we can get it to transfer right.

This is the master bathroom. Look at the nice big garden style tub. We love it. and so does Sarah.

Here is our backyard. Not bad for Vegas. And our kitchen. It's awesome! We got a stainless steel french door fridge to match the other appliances of course. Love it Love it Love it. :)

Here is our family room. Don't the carpets look nice and clean. We got Larry to come and steam clean them. He does a fantastic job. His business is Larry Cleans Carpets and I would definitely use him again. Just ask me if you want his number.

It is so cool that this is ours now. I will post more pictures later too when we get more decorated

Young at Heart Still

2008-05-29T00:57:00.004-06:00

Sorry it has been forever since we last posted, we have been VERY busy here in the Foote family this last month. First of all, we have accomplished a LOT of our life goals these past few months, so we are feeling OLD and accomplished. It seems like I just realized that I am old. Every single thing that I used to catergorize as meaning you are "grown up," I have done now. Here is a list of some of them:

1.) Married
2.) Done with school
3.) Have your own child or lots of children
4.) OWN a HOUSE....yes, that is right. We own a house!!! Yay! We are proud home owners and we are SO excited about it! (More to come on this in the next blog post)

But those of you who are concerned about us being old and all grown up. Don't worry we'll try not to turn boring too. I think we will always be Toys R Us kids, really excited to go to Disneyland or wake up way too early on Christmas morning to see what Santa Claus brought, taking great joy in the little things in life. I think we will always be young at heart.

We have made our CMT debut

2008-05-02T01:56:00.006-06:00

Alright, well the Carrie Underwood song featuring the chapel is now out, if you would like to watch it click here! They are not really exemplifying what we try to create for our wedding couples, a nice, romantic, well thought out, elegant ceremony. We were not aware of the songs content when we signed up for this, but hey, it is kind of cool that our sign blows up!

Tagged by my wife. . .

2008-05-02T01:26:00.003-06:00

Well, Katie tagged me . . . a while ago . . . So I guess I better fill this thing out.

Here are my answers.4 Jobs I've had:
- Water Extraction Grunt - I worked for Water Extraction Technologies or WET helping tear out carpet and pad, move furniture, and dry out wet houses. Good times!
- Student Consulting on Teaching or SCOT - This is a BYU program where I go paid to go and watch professors as a student and consult with them on their teaching. Thus the name of the position. Well it was pretty cool, I met a lot of great professors and learned a lot about powerful and effective teaching and communicating.
- School Bus Driver - Sorry no acronym on this one. I really loved this job, it was early in the morning, I got to hang out with kids, and I got to drive a totally awesome vehicle. All good things. I recomend it as a good paying college job to any RMs at BYU. They are alsways hurting for help. Tell Delayna I say hi if you give it a try.

4 Movies I’d watch over and over:
-The Princess Bride
-The Bourne Movies
- The Man Who Knew Too Little
-Pure Luck (check this one out if you haven't seen it. . . classic Martin Short)

4 Places I have lived:
-Reno, Nevada - The biggest little city in the world, and the shakiest little city in the world. I heard they have had something like 300 plus earthquakes over the last two weeks, only a few big ones, but wow!
-Las Vegas, NV (until college)
-Provo, UT (until recently)
-Chapel of the Flowers - Who lives at a wedding chapel? What kind of wierdos are we?

4 TV shows I watch:
-Monk
-American Idol
-Dirty Jobs
- Myth Busters

4 Places I have been:
-Hawaii - I highly recomend it!
-Cozumel Mexico, an awesome little island with tons of great scuba diving. Fun place.
- Snow Skiing - I have been to several different resorts, one over 40 times, but they are all a little piece of heaven so take your pick.
-Panama - This is the farthest from home I have ever been. Cool little country, and that canal is pretty sweet.

4 People who e-mail me regularly:
-Jason Myers
-David Foote
-Holly Myers
-Nicole Robertson - I e-mail way too much at work, all three are people I see everyday anyway. Yikes, I need to keep in contact with friends more.

4 Favorite things to eat:
-Cookie Dough
-Fresh Baked Cookies (both with milk)
-Brownie sunday
-Butterscotch pudding with a scoop of Vanilla (cook and serve pudding, still warm off the stove, if you think I am crazy, so did Katie, and now she loves it!)

4 Places I'd rather be: If this is as of right now:
-Asleep - it is late at night and I have no idea while I am still concious
-Water Skiing - it has been way too windy lately. We need a lake day.
-The Ranch - We just got back from a trip to the Ranch, but I would go again. Such a beautiful peaceful place. One of my favorite places on earth.
-Asleep - Did I say that already? Well this is different, I would love to be asleep in the house we have basically bought. But the seller is in Thailand and hasn't signed the paperwork yet, so here I sleep at the chapel instead. Bummer. Hopefully he will sign before May 7th or the house will be foreclosed on and auctioned off.

4 Things I look forward to this year:
-As my wife said, I am also excited to move into a house
-Going to Brazil to visit Steven's mission.
-Making the wedding chapel even more sucessfull.
-Celebrating Sarah’s first birthday- also all of the milestones she will pass in the meantime. Sitting up on her own, giving hugs, eating solid foods, all kinds of dorky parent stuff I never thought I would get THIS excited about.

4 People to tag:
-Jeremy Foote
-Tyson Young
-Whoever reads this and wishes they had been tagged. Just pretend this is personal, "Hey _____, I like you, and so I have tagged you. Now just take more time than you think this should take and write about yourself. . . Thanks ______!"
-The person sitting next to _______

It Isn't Easy Being Green... =o)

2008-05-02T00:18:00.002-06:00

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

I saw this little test on our friends Marie and Tyson's blog and I wanted to see what color I was too...turns out Tyler and I are both GREEN! Let me know what you are too.

American Idol Gave Back to US!!!

2008-04-16T00:38:00.004-06:00

So for those of you who couldn't tell-- this is us with Carrie Underwood. That is right, the famous, totally wicked cool, American Idol winning, Grammy receiving, country singing Carrie Underwood. How did we get this privilege you ask. . . because we live at a wedding chapel . . . That is right Chapel of the Flowers was chosen as one of the settings for the new Carrie Underwood music video.

So we waited around and watched about a hundred people fill our parking lot and put all kinds of cameras and lights all over the place. Then we waited around some more while they filmed, and then finally on their way out the door we got a quick photo with her. It was pretty cool, and we are excited to see our little business featured on a music video!

Sarah was so good during the whole thing. Carrie Underwood actually said (about Sarah): "Oh look she's just chillin'." :)

This was the original shot they were going to use before the wind wouldn't die down. Then they moved it all inside.

This is Katie and Sarah chilling on the set (literally chilling, it was cold and windy).

So now we have yet another Chapel claim to fame. Pretty cool, huh?

I WAS TAGGED!

2008-04-13T01:44:00.007-06:00

I was tagged so now I can share more about myself with you. Thanks Lindzie! Here are my answers.

4 Jobs I've had:

-Speech Teacher (I loved this job, and I miss all of my kiddos and awesome co-workers)
-Gorilla package delivery service (I know, I know, some of you are probably thinking that I am joking, but actually this really is me in the photo below. Funny, huh? It was a temp job with Kelly Services and they drove me around in a limo to deliver the packages. I have some funny stories about this one. :) )
-Lifeguard
-Receptionist for a law firm

-I've also been a wedding planner, florist, and sales rep.

4 Movies I’d watch over and over:

-The Princess Bride
-The newest version of Pride and Prejudice
- While You Were Sleeping

-The Sound of Music

4 Places I have lived:
-Southern California (until I was 7)
-Henderson, NV (until college)
-Provo, UT (until recently)

-THE STRIP (currently)

4 TV shows I watch:

-Monk

-American Idol

-General Conference (only about every six months though :) )

-Occasionally I’ll catch some HGTV or Discovery Channel

4 Places I have been:
-Hawaii (see pic below)
-London

-Walt Disney World (in Florida)

-The Bahamas

4 People who e-mail me regularly:

-Costco

-Amazon

-Jason Foote’s weekly mass spiritually uplifting thought

-My Brother John’s forwarded emails from his mission
…how sad is this? Please email me! I need a pen pal.

4 Favorite things to eat:

-Dried Mangoes from Costco

-Smoothies--I have an AWESOME blender. Check out http://www.willitblend.com/ and you will see the amazing power of my blender :) Seriously, it can even blend lightbulbs, golfballs, or matchbox cars.

-Yogurt and Granola (Quaker brand granola is the best!)

-Fresh fruit. Especially peaches or strawberries or pineapple YUM!!!

4 Places I'd rather be: If this is as of right now:

-Hawaii (I am jealous of my sister-in-law Lisa who is currently living this dream!!!)

-Swimming at the lake or in a pool
-In a nice neighborhood that is not scary to take stroller walks in

-The Ranch
Or the temple. I haven’t been to the temple in too long and I wish I was there right now!

Here is a lovely picture of the ranch.

And here is one of beautiful Lake Powell (I love going here with my family every summer!

4 Things I look forward to this year:

-Moving into a HOUSE! (Well I don’t really look forward to the moving part, but I am REALLY looking forward to the living there part. Yay! :) )

-Picking up my brother John from his mission in Lisbon, Portugal!!! YAY!

-Seeing family and friends again (We miss so many of you a LOT!!!)
-Celebrating Sarah’s first birthday

4 People to tag:

-Stephanie Kearl

-Mary Gunnell

-Kedra Foote

-Tyler, my hubby (if he has time to! That way you can all learn more about him too!)

Sarah's First Easter

2008-03-17T21:51:00.009-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. We didn't fall of the face of the earth, I have just been a little bit busy! Sorry! But we will try to do better, I won't promise to do better, but I will promise to try to do better.

So anyway, Easter was really nice. The Easter bunny left a cute little stuffed bunny for Sarah since she can't eat candy yet. But the Easter Bunny left Tyler and I a few little goodies to munch on . . . yumm! Anyway, Sarah got a really cute little dress from her Grams (My wonderful mother) She also got some really cute outfits from Tyler's mom, who is also amazing and wonderful . . . thanks grandmas!!! Anyway, between the cute dress and the cute little bunny we could not help but run down stairs to our photo studio (there are some benefits to living at a wedding chapel!) and get some photos. So here they are, our little sweetie!!!

She started sitting up nice and high . . .

But her dress was very slippery

and she slid all the way down like this, several times!

The Move

2008-02-15T21:11:00.004-07:00

So, it turns out that moving is hard, and takes a long time, and sometimes when you are moving you put things on the back burner . . . such as blogging.

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated we have been a little busy. We have been painting, parenting, moving, working, and all kinds of other ings (just not sleeping . . . enough) that have taken up all of our time. And now that we have all of that done we are house shopping!

Why are we house shopping already you may ask. Well it turns out that our new house here in Las Vegas is not actually a house. We live in a wedding chapel, Chapel of the Flowers to be exact. We live right on the strip in an upstairs one bedroom appartment. It is pretty cool, but we do not reccommend moving from a three bedroom to a one bedroom, especailly if you add a member to your family at the same time. Yikes, we did not know where to put stuff. So we got a storage unit, and we still don't know where to put all of the "necesities"

One nice thing about our new place is that we live right upstairs from a florist, so Tyler has brought me flowers a few times, and we live right upstairs from a photo studio. We have used this a few times with Sarah and it is awesome. We also live right upstairs from a wedding chapel, not quite as useful. But funny, and sometimes we wake up to the wedding march being played right below or bed.

Alright, that is about all for now, but here are a few pictures.

Sarah's First Photo Shoot

2007-12-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

Tyler had some fun with his camera, and, on Christmas Eve day, Sarah had her first photo shoot. Here are some of the pictures. I think Tyler has mad skills with a camera! We just love our little angel baby more with every day.

Sarah loves to make all kinds of faces, some cute, some just funny, here are a few. These were not part of the "photo shoot" but they are fun.

This is another non photo shoot photo but a really cute one.

Katie the Photographer

2007-12-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Sarah with sock on her hands. As you can see she scratched her face and we didn't have anything else to cover her hands.

Sorry all these posts are out of order and all at once. I had a few things to do during finals week, imagine that, and so I was pretty busy. Fortunately this has been the least busy of any finals week I have ever had. So I finally finished everything up this morning, so now I am done.

So hopefully I will keep you posted until Katie is up to maintaining our blog again.

So those of you that know us know that I love photography. I really enjoy all of the different things you can do with a camera. Well Katie has been hiding her talents, she took some awesome pictures. Here are a few of the great pictures she took, and a few I took, the better ones are hers though . . .

More Visitors

2007-12-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

Sarah has already recieved a lot of company. It has been great to see everyone, and the meals have all been fantastic. It has been my responsibility to be the photographer as guests have come, and I am afriad I have failed in many regards. Katie has reminded me quite often, but I always forget to get pictures of our guests holding Sarah. So here are a few pictures of guests, but if you came to visit and you are not on here don't feel bad please.

Sarah and the tanning booth

2007-12-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

So Sarah is three days old now. She is such a joy to have. We love our little girl.

Sadly Sarah has a little bit of Jaundice, it is not bad, but her bilirubin is a little high. For those of you that aren't familiar with treatment we have to put her under bili lights. This is like a white suitcase that is a portable tanning bed. We are supposed to have her in the lights 2.5 of every 3 hours at least, but we are not great at leaving her in there that much. Especially because there are plenty of people that want to hold her. Both grandmas are now in town, so if it wasn't for the bili light I don't think we would even need a bassinet, she would never touch it.

I know we are going to get a bunch of responses telling us not to worry, and that she will be alright. We know that, but it is kind of sad to not be able to hold her, and to watch them prick her little heal.

These are the top quality "sunglasses" that she has to wear. They drive her crazy and are a pain to get on and keep in place. Look at how skinny her little arm is. She is so cute!

Sarah's Guestbook

2007-12-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

Sarah has had a few visitors already!!!

Here are a few photos of Sarah's first visitors, her cousins!!!

Sarah Elizabeth Foote

2007-12-17T15:29:00.001-07:00

This morning at 4:41 a new member of our family came into the world. Sarah Elizabeth Foote was 5 lbs 9 oz and 18.5 inches long. She has nice full hair, a cute little nose, and she wrinkles her forehead just like her dad. :) She really is a little doll, and we love her like crazy already (like that surprises anyone). She is really small and we are hoping to fatten her up a little bit. She really is very skinny. So far the fattening up part has not been overly successful. She has not really been in the mood to eat, which makes it hard.

Does that look like a woman who is 20 minutes away from delivery. That's my Katie, what a trooper.

Here are a few pictures of our little angel.

This is Sarah about 3 minutes minutes old

These two are of her 5 minutes old.

The hospital staff were great, they let us spend about an hour and half with her right after she was born. They all did a great job and made us feel comfortable.

This is Sarah getting cleaned up

With a cute little bow in her hair

We love our little Sarah

Festival of Trees and Lights

2007-12-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a great date night with Aapree and Kevin. We headed up to Salt Lake for the Festival of Trees and Lights. It is a really cool event that benefits Primary Children's Hospital. They have like a million trees there all decorated differently. They sell the trees in a silent auction and then all the proceeds go to the hospital. Pretty cool. They had some awesome trees too. Everything from Darth Vader, to BYU, to cowboys, to babies, to the "Nerd Herd" tree.
They also have some amazing ginger bread houses and other season items.

Afterwards we went to Chili's for some grubbing ribs and dessert. Pretty dang good datenight if you ask me.

Tyler and I by the big "Tree"

This is Aapree and her husband Kevin . . . with us.

This was one of our favorite Trees.

Talk about skill - the umbrellas are actually fruit rolls. This was awesome (good movie too)

This is me with the baby tree

Tyler and Darth Vader

Go Cougs - this was Tyler's favorite ginger bread house.

The "Nerd Herd Tree" Notice the Einstein and Dilber ornaments

Cosmo sighting

2007-12-03T21:25:00.001-07:00

We saw Cosmo the other day as we were driving down University. . . or something like that. Anyway, it was pretty awesome so we got some awesome Cosmo pictures, what a stud. He also made an appearance at Danny's birthday party, which was pretty awesome. Cosmo obviously knows who the biggest BYU fan of all times is.

COSMO ROCKS!!!

GO COUGS!!!

"Inspiration Point" AKA Squaw Peak

2007-12-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, before the snow, we decided to head up to Squaw Peak to watch the sunset. We have never been there late at night, but it was definitely not make out point when we were there, as we have heard it usually is. Instead we found a lot of families and old people. It was really beautiful so we decided to . . . make out . . . just kidding, we really just took a picture and enjoyed how pretty it was. We are really going to miss how beautiful Provo and the mountains are.

San Francisco

2007-12-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

We were looking through some old photos and decided to post a few from recent trips and events. These first ones are from our awesome summer trip to visit Steph and Will in San Francisco. We had a great time while we were there.

We rode in some awesome GoCars around the town. They were a ton of fun and we learned some cool stuff about SF. Just a warning though, these little guys do NOT do well on hills. We both had to swing a foot out the side and push like on a skateboard a couple of times. Wish we had pictures of that, it was pretty funny.

While in San Francisco we also went to China town, it was a great oriental experience. We had some grubbing food in a cool little restaurant with a big fish tank (I think they were on the menu, not just for looks . . . ewwwww). We also found some fun little shops. Good times.

Thanks Steph and Will.

We also toured the Conservatory of Flowers. How did I get Tyler to come to something like this you may ask? Two words - Carniverous Plants. It was really cool to see all the different kinds of plants, but the highlight was, without a doubt, the carniverous plants. They had several kinds, the big round looking one was filled with sweet smelling liquid to entice its prey, then the top would snap shut and the poor victim would drown. The other is the famed venus fly trap. As you can tell Tyler was pretty happy to be there. (He really was, he is just a goof, not that I have much room to talk in this case. hehe)

Halloween

2007-11-06T00:40:00.000-07:00

Halloween was a good time. We had some AWESOME trick or treaters and then went, as one of our friends put it, "reverse trick or treating." We made some fun treat bags for family and then drove them around. It was a fun to see everyone (at least everyone that answered the door . . . Jeremy and Kedra)

For family night we carved some pumpkins with one of Tyler's friends from school and his wife. We had a great time, ate some tasty pumpkin dessert and got some awesome salsa (Thanks Youngs!) Anyway, we thought the jack-o-lanterns turned out pretty dang good, so we thought we would show off our handy work.

We had a great Halloween, but drove past some scandalous party, and let's just say we are both glad that we are married and don't have to worry about the dumb single life. What is it about Halloween that makes people think that they do not need to use clothing?!?!?! Well apparently even here in Provo, BYU students feel the need to be naked. (They would get along great with one of the canidates for San Francisco Mayor - see the Stephanie and Will Kearl blog for more details) They were nearly nude and definatly lewd! It really was disturbing.

Family Dinner

2007-11-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

Tyler's younger brother Steven recently got engaged and we decided to throw an engagement dinner/celebration for them. It was a good time, and we decided to get some fun pictures of us making stuffed mushrooms and chicken parmigiana. It was way tasty and a good time. It had been too long since we had used the hats.

There were 12 people that came and it was fun, but a little crowded in our little apartment. Plus we had some awesome leftovers. It is hard to judge how much to cook for 12 people when you are used to cooking for 2 (or 2 and a half right now ;) hehe) It is especially hard when one of those 2.5 people is Tyler.

2007-10-03T21:09:00.000-06:00

The Beginning of the Blog

2007-09-26T16:20:00.000-06:00

Well, here it finally is... the long awaited and highly anticipated Foote Family Blog.
Seeing as last week alone we had about five different people ask us if we had a blog and tell us that we needed to start one----then especially after Stephanie even sent us a link to start one, we decided we had no excuse, it was time to get with the program and satisfy the demand for The Foote Family Blog. Now you can all check it out to see our cool pictures and fun updates...as soon as we post some that is. haha We'll see how this goes.