My Boys

So the latest Rogers happenings.

Chase has started school again. He quit going right before we got married to start up his business and now that it's going pretty steady he felt it was time to go back and finish. He changed his major, so that's been a real bummer for him but most of his classes he took he can still use. I had to do a first day of school picture because this is where he has taken all his school pictures. Same place every year when he was younger. So since we are still at his parents house I thought it would be fun. Ha ha. We are still waiting to get our house. Short sales are such a bummer. We are suppose to hear back this week, but still don't really know what. Things have moved along but we don't really know what that means either. We just hope that things go thru FAST!!! Ha ha ha.

Kael is now officially a walking boy! We were helping my grandparents pack the other day and I brought my camera. So I took a couple snaps of him running around. This kid loves to be outside. Cold, rain, sun, heat. He doesn't care he just runs for the door anytime he hears it open. The little turkey has figured out that he doesn't have to stay in the grass in the front yard. So needless to say if you turn your back for a second he's running down the side walk, usually to chase and bark at the birds. A little trait he's picked up from my mom's irritation dog. Ba ha ha. And what's even funnier is that his bark (and meow) doesn't really sound anything like a dog (or cat). His bark sounds more like a monkey or owl. hoo hoo hoo. His cat noise, I can't even describe it. I'm giggling just thinking about it. He, like, sucks in his air and make this weird.... screeching sound I guess you could call it. I have no idea how he got that from Meow, meow. Kids. Oh yeah, this kid can talk your ear off. Man, when we go run errands he just jibber jabs the whole ride. And every thing can be turned into a phone. He's got the fake laugh down pretty good. He says quite a few words but only on his own time. If you try and get him to say it he usually ignores you. He only says mama, if hes whining and usually it's "me maw, me maw" which mean 'mean mom.' That would be my own fault. When he's whining and saying my name I would say to him, "I know, I'm just a mean mom." So needless to say, now I'm "Me Maw!" Ha ha, oh well. Any ways, if I can get any of his funny little noises on tape I'll be sure to show you, it will definitely make you smile.

The little run away

Ha, ha. His hat is so dorky but I love it. It was only 3 bucks at the Gap and it's such a Kael attitude hat right now. So it works.

Generations

So I've been helping my Grandma Jeannie go thru her pictures and scanning them so that we have back ups. You so if there is a fire or water damage or if they get lost when she moves we have some copies. She is getting ready to move to Texas and has so much flippin stuff! So I'm going thru these pictures and laughing because it made me realize that I'm sealed to all these people. This is my eternal family. Generations, so many generations together forever. I also realized how much I look like my mom... and dad. And Kael is the spittin image of my mom. Put a dress on him, grow his hair out and ta dah. These were just a few of the many that we went thru but I just loved the pictures so I wanted to show you my generations.

My parents

Danette and Kevin

My grandma (Jeannie)

My Great Grandpa Crook.

I never got to meet him because he died very young. He is holding his daughter, my great aunt.

My Great Grandma Iva and My step-Grandpa Allen

He is the only GREAT Grandpa I got to know.

Ha ha. I love this one. It is my Great Grandpa Crook and his brother.

Check out that babe. This is my Grandma Jeannie on a post card because she was Miss Arizona in 1960. So crazy! She so beautiful!

My Grandma Jeannie and my Papa

Hey thats ME! And my cousins Jarid and Justin.

Aren't we just the cutest.

This is my mom and her sister.

See how much we look alike?

This is my mom and her brother.

Now this is Kael in a dress and with long her.

My Great Grandma Iva.

I'm not meaning to be mean but if she had wrinkles it would be what my great grandma looked like later. To me, her looks didn't change a whole lot. She was always so dang gorgeous!

Well I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of my generations. It's just simply amazing.

Going out with a Bang!

Yay! My favorite and bestest sister had a birthday on the 17th of December! What better way to celebrate than at the cheesecake factory ending your meal with the best invention ever.... Red velvet cake layered with cheesecake!!!! yum!

Since we couldn't get a tree this year since we are basement dwellers for now. Here was our sad little replacement. At least it smelled like Christmas down here. :)

Christmas festivities!

Sunday Christmas we had a party with Chases family I neglected to take any pictures. I tend to do that when I'm too busy enjoying myself. Dan sang some great tunes to the grand kiddos. It was so fun. Kael just stared and had this funny look on his face. ha ha.

Christams eve we had a get together at my parents house. The Houston's from Houston were able to make it so it made Christmas so fun! We did our annual program and it was small but fun.

We had fun laughing at the old people who had to wear there glasses just to read their programs. ha ha.

Chase, Kael and I sang the Chipmunk Song as our part of the program. It was funny cause the Dog was freaking out at our funny voices. Guess he doesn't like chipmunks.

Chase has a tradition in his family were they get to open one gift before christmas morning and it was new pj's. We have adopted this tradition in our family so Kael actually got to open his all by himself this year and that was so fun to do.

He got batman pj's!

With a cape and everything! ha ha, so cute!

Christmas morning Chase set his alarm for 5:30am as always. I don't think he liked sleeping in 'til seven last year due to lack of sleep from one month old babe. So I was a little annoyed that on Christmas morning instead of just waking up and being excited I got to wake up to that obnoxious sound from his alarm. oh well, it was Christmas what can you do. Kael was a little confused at what was going on but soon was all happy to open more presents and play with his new toys. It was fun to have his parents there with us. Wish we could do that every year.

Chase got a crap load of hunting stuff (compliments of his wife and Cory McLaws) Cory helped me pick out a bunch of small stuff that he needed for hunting so Chase had a ton of stuff to open cause I wrapped every single thing individually. Ha, ha. My favorite though, was when he picked up in gun case thinking there was a gun in it and only found bullets and a broom stick. he he. I tricky! Then I pulled out the gun from under the couch. He was pretty surprised! I got a shopping spree for christmas and I couldn't more happy. I am in dire need of new clothes. Thanks babe.

And Kael had so much fun at Thanksgiving in that toy car that Nana got him one! He loves that thing. He plays with it all the time. So cute.

I had so much fun New year's eve that I forgot my camera. So this is what we did most of New Years Day because we had so much fun.

So we love the outdoors... and hiking.... but I don't love high places. Some friends invited us sto go hike Camelback Mountain with them. I was excited but worried cause I was so out of shape. Wow the whole way is uphill!!! and STEEP! there are some parts where they have cemented bars into the rock and you have to pull yourself up the mountain. My knees were shaking so bad. I was so freakin scared. I kept having flashes of me rolling down the mountain. So needless to say I only went up half way. Partly cause I was pooped from being out of shape, but mostly cause I'm just a big fat chicken. It started out great, just a few stairs and then a curvey dirt trail, then you hit the steep stuff. It was a lot of fun, and gave me a much needed work out. But I don't think I'll be going back to that mtn any time soon.

Check out that awesome smog. Gross!

Home for the Holidays!

So I've gotten myself in the holiday festive mood, I suppose. Instead of a Christmas Tree this year we got a Holiday wreath to hang on our bedroom door. It smells of Christmas downstairs and I love to wake up every morning and get a sniffle of that wonderful wreath. I just can't help but get all festive and excited for Christmas! We have been busy with so many things. As you know we are not in our rental home anymore, we are in Chase's parents basement. Dang basement dwellers. Any who we have been working hard at trying to find a house to buy so we can get out of our dungeon and out of his parents way. We have never gotten any where near getting any of the houses we put an offer on until recently. We put an offer on a HUD home and we ended up being the first runner up. So we got all excited thinking well we made a little progress lets keep the ball rolling. We found a few really cute houses but one that was our favorite was a short sale. dun dun dun. I know short sales are just no fun. So we figured, eh why not at least just try, right? So we put an offer on the house knowing that we probably wouldn't hear anything for a month of so. But... to our surprise, they called that day to say that we would know the very next day if our offer was accepted. Plus # one! We wouldn't have to wait long just to find out we didn't get it. Wahoo! Then they called us back the next day and.... they .... accepted ..... our.... offer!!!! YAAAAAY! Plus # two! Man we are on a role. So after about a year of searching and rejections we finally got accepted. They like us, they really really like us. :) Ha ha. So of course there is always a catch when dealing with the dreaded short sales. They have a second mortgage. Poop. So instead of having to convince one bank to take a hit we have to convince two banks. So it might be a while before we even find out if our offer even gets accepted by the bank. So we aren't holding our breath on this house. But we don't care! We are just so stinkin excited that we got this far!! We are saying our prayers that it will go quick no matter what the outcome. Kael has been loving being at Nan's house. He gets to see at least one cousin everyday. So he always as a buddy to play with. He has been feeling pretty crumby though cause he is teething again. This poor kid doesn't just get one tooth at a time. His first six came in all at the same time and now all his molars are coming at a few others. I just feel so bad. He is a good kid and such a trooper but these teeth are really kickin his but this time. At least he's got his awesome cousin's to distract him and keep him busy. All 29 of them. :)

Picture Nazi

*Warning..... Start from the bottom of this post, it's backwards, and I don't have the time to switch it (see previous post).*

Kael and his Great Grandma Alice.

Poor grandma can't remember anybody's name, but she did remember Kael's name the whole time we were there. :)

Such a beautiful Temple

We took the opportunity to go to the Las Vegas Temple while we were there. Oh my gosh. The celestial room glows when the light comes thru the windows at just the right time. It seriously took my breath away when I walked in.

Driving the big boy car

Kids took turns playing in the leaves

I guess I know what Kael is getting for Christmas. He sat in this toy car for so hours. He loved it!

We got to ride it Talon's cool dune buggie. I think that's what it was. It was freakin fast. no joke I about peed my pants.

It was really loud while they were playing games so Chase took a nap with Kael in the grass.

This is also for all yall texas family who wasn't there this year in Vegas with us. Just wanted you to see everybody and how much they've grown. It was so empty with out. Loves.

Cynthia and Amber this is for you.

Kael loves his bath time and now he has fun toys to make it even more fun. Thanks. Miss you guys. Loves from Kael.

He crashed the moment he was buckled in to go home. What a good first birthday.

no clothes, surrounded by toys.... thats the life for me

time to clean up

ramped it off the cake... wow check out that air.

He found his car candle and decided it needed a drive. He he, such a boy.

The first bite

He didn't really like us singing to him

He got so many gifts. Thank you everyone who got him stuff. He loves it all.

Kael didn't like his clothes. Ha, ha. He would throw them anytime we would put them on his lap. Silly boy has never like those confining things.

opening gifts

Kael's cake

daddy making birthday boy his breakfast

Kael's blanket I made him for his birthday

(my first blanket I've ever sewn)

So I've always known that I'm a picture freak. I have wanted a camera since I was little but wasn't aloud to have one until I was 12. My mom was smart and didn't want me wasting film. Cause you know back in the old days you actually had to by film and wait to see what your pictures looked like, and if they turned out. I remember the year I got my camera I would set up my barbies, yes I played with barbies when I was twelve, and then take their picture. I would make my family 'smile' and 'say cheese' too. It was this ghetto little box camera that you had to manually load and I remember it was a deep purple too. But I loved it and I love taking pictures. My next few cameras were 35mm and a little more high tech. (no manual turning required) Then the best invention ever!! Enter the digital camera. I think this is the coolest thing ever. No more waiting to see your pictures. So I get mine and I had the thing f...or....ev...er..... It was a pink kodak. My best friend. Enter the digital SLR!! Dun du da dun! I gotta have one. hum.... crap.... no money. So I hold off and keep using my pretty pink camera that I'm pretty sure I've had for like five years. I told you it was my best friend. Well it finally took a crap recently and my sweet hubby let me buy my sweet Canon Rebel XSi DIGITAL SLR camera. Whoop whoop. Hello new best friend. I did take two years of photography in high school and a semester of it in college. But I'm no expert photographer. I don't consider myself educated in the subject either. I just love love love taking pictures. So now that you know my silly story consider this my formal apology for the over load of picture taking. Over the past week and a half, no wait it was only on the weekends so technically only five days, I have managed to take 360 pictures. Yeah. Call that an accomplishment? I do. Holy crap. Was the camera glued to my face? Ha, ha. Well I'm not going to show you all 360 but I probably will have a lot to show you so...... Sorry and enjoy.

Homeless for Christmas....

So we are officially homeless for Christmas. :( Do you want to know why? Of course you do, why else would you still be reading? So here's the scoop. We have been renting from our old Stake President while they were serving as mission presidents. Three years was the plan. That's how long you serve as mission presidents. July would have been three years. Only 7 months to go before we needed to be out. We have been house hunting for almost a year now with absolutely no flippin luck!!! Can you tell I'm irritated about that? It's just so just...... grrrrr...... because me and Chase have such a hard time even agreeing on a house. He wants these crap holes to fix up and I just want a home that's not going to fall apart while living in it or to cost a million dollars just to fix up. Husbands. Anyways, it has been a long, horrible experience. We have fought more in the last few months then we ever have because of this stupid house issue. So a horrible thing happened and the stake pres. that we are renting from had a heart attack. I know, so sad. So he was doing good after the fact but Salt Lake decided to send him home early. Great for them because they get to be home for the holidays. Not so great for us cause we still haven't gotten a home. Poop. The day we found out they were coming home was the day we found out we got rejected from another house. Surprise, surprise. We didn't know when exactly they would be home. They said it could be two weeks, or a couple months. Wow. So we planned on being ready in two weeks, just in case. Well Kael's birthdays was that first week and the second week was Thanksgiving and we were in Vegas with my dad's family this year. So needless to say not much time has been spent packing and we didn't have any time to go look for a new place to live. I did get a lot done before we left for Thanksgiving but we still had a lot to do. Anyway Sunday when we got back we went over to Chase's parents to say hello. His dad had heard when they were suppose to be home and it was next Monday!!! AHHHHH! So I have ONE week to get all of our crap out of the house... and....... we don't have enough time to find a place to live. So we are moving in with Chase's parents temporarily. The last few days all I've done from early morning to late night is pack, pack, pack. Fun! Talk about crazy. ha ha. Stress is my companion for now. I'm just so.... how do I describe it..... UGH..... about Christmas. It is my most favoritest holiday ever and we won't be able to do much this year. So sad. At least I am. I know Kael is too young for it to matter to him, but it matters to me. No Tree, no stockings, no putting up lights, no gingerbread house party, no baking goodies. I'm sure my mom in law won't mind letting me do a few of these things but it just won't be the same because we aren't in our own place. Maybe we'll be able to find something before Christmas. I don't know. Well if you don't hear from me for a while, thats why. Life will be major crazy.

Oh Dear...

Oh my sweet baby Kael... where have you gone? I have been stuck with this mean ol' stinker of a friend. He's such a lil' sass, he steals my food, ignores me when I say 'no', and yells at me if I get up to take away what I just said 'no' to. Oh please tell my sweet baby Kael to come back. I miss his kisses, and how he would share his snacks with me, and how he love to share his toys. I miss this sweet heart who has been replaced by this lil' sass of an attitude. :)

Kael has taken on this lil' stinker of a 'tude lately. He has been throwing fits when you say no, or take away something he can't have. And I mean fits! He cries like you just broke his arm or something. Big ol' tears come pouring down his cheeks and he arches his back and kicks his legs. I mean if he was standing up he would be stampin' his feet kind of thing. I can't help but laugh because as soon as what you just took away appears those mysterious tears and crying "poof" vanish. Lil' turd. I laugh but it makes me so mad too because it's just pathetic the way he's figured out how to work us over. Ha, ha. Man are we suckers. Most of the time we stick to our 'NO' but sometimes, like tonight, when we just don't understand the 'want' followed by 'the fit' we cave. I know, BAD. But you have to hear this story to understand the hilariousness of it. So when Kael was younger, like just learned to sit up kind of young, I would set him in the bathroom sink while I got ready. Well he would be good for a while, then would get bored and start his destruction. He would always go for the Q-tips and then eat them. So I quickly learned that if you don't want it in the mouth, put a binkie in it. He won't take out the binkie because it's just too precious to him. Ha, ha, sneaky I know. Anyways, he got older and is now too curious and too big to be sitting up there now so its been a while since he's gotten to play with the fun stuff on the counter. Well my mom was babysitting Kael the other night and he found a random Q-tip. He played with that stupid thing FOR-EV-ER. He would hold it in the air, rub it on his toes, switch it from hand to hand, play with the cotton on the ends. I mean this kid thought he had just discovered the coolest thing. Well I came to pick him up and my mom told me what he's been doing. I laugh and then think 'gross! it's probably been used!' so I casually take it away, so I don't make a scene. Ha, Kael cried like I just killed his best friend. We all kind of stared for a second in shock, then laughed. I gave it back and immediately he stopped crying and smiled at the stupid Q-tip. The Q-tip. So, the mean mom that I am, I did it again to see what he would do. Yup threw an even bigger fit. Kicking legs, big ol' tears, and...... he dropped the binkie out of his mouth!! If you know Kael, his binkie is his best friend, won't sleep with out it. And so I showed him the Q-tip, and..... tah dah... no more tears. I laughed. What else could I do? It was just the oddest thing. Well tonight, my sis went and got a clean one and he did the same thing again. He is such an odd little boy, but I sure love him.

Kael loves, loves to read books. This was a couple Sundays ago and Chase was reading his book and Kael wanted his dad. So Chase picked him up, set him on his lap and handed him a book. Kael leaned back, opened his book and started talking in his own little baby language. It was just the cutest thing. Luckily I had my camera close by so I snapped some quick pics. He actually surprisingly stayed there for a while just chillin'. I know, just too cute.