Hello, I love you. Won't you tell me your name?...

I've been wanting to create a post like this in awhile. My blog stats tell me that there are quite a few Hyser Family Blog readers out there. And just for fun, I'm curious to know who you are! :) Leave a comment telling me who you are, where you are from, and how you found us! I have changed my settings, so if you don't have a google account you can click on the Name option and just type your name in the spot.

C'mon... Don't be shy!

Cinderella

For the past week Kaiya has been running to the wall and pouting with her arms and head on the wall. It is usually when I tell her something that she doesn't like to hear. I thought it was funny, but didn't think to ask her about. So yesterday we were playing outside and she lost a quarter in the grass. She runs to the front door and leans her head and arms down on the step and fake sobs quietly. I started laughing and said, "What are you doing? Who taught you to do that?" And she very seriously replies, "Ella." And since we have watched this 329 times I remembered that after Cinderella's step-sisters tear her dress to pieces, she runs into the garden and cries on the garden bench until magically her fairy godmother appears. This is amazing to me for 2 reasons: 1) She is mimicking behavior from TV. 2) She answered my question about who taught her that correctly. Just another reminder that she's growing up! :)

I got her to do the Cinderella pose for me... Now look at the pictures and imagine her sobbing quietly to herself. Very cute. She usually runs to whatever she is going to do her sobbing on.

Prayer Request

Many of you know that I (tony) am in a group called Maximized Living. This weekend we are putting together the Maximized Living Makeover. Think Extreme Makeover for your health while doing it the way God intended. There will be about a 100 of them going on around the U.S. The first one started last weekend at Colombine High School with about 1000 people. The rest of them will be taking place tomorrow. Pray that many people's lives/health will be changed. You can get a sample of the Colombine makeover here: (Make sure you click on the "remembering colombine" link)! www.rememberingcolumbine.com

Lots of posts at once...

I feel like I just have to get caught up with this blogging. So I'm posting a bunch at once to catch myself up with what is currently going on.

A week ago Tony had a trip to Charlotte planned. He rented a car and was planning on meeting my dad up there to look at a few commercial properties and secure financing. Saturday morning about 2 hours before he wanted to leave I asked him if the kids and I could tag along. It was totally last minute, but because he rented a car it wouldn't cost him anything to take us along. It took me about 30 minutes to plead my case and rebuttle every reason that he came up with as to why it wouldn't be a good idea but he consented under two conditions. 1) I had to get both kids and myself packed in 30 minutes. 2) The rental car had to comfortably fit 3 adults and 2 carseats. About 2 hours later we were on the Interstate headed to Charlotte.

We had such a blast on the trip. The kids travelled really well, surprising Tony as that was reason #749 as to why it wouldn't be a good idea to take us along. And I was thanking my lucky stars that they were so good since I insisted that they would be angels. :) The trip was very confirming to me that Charlotte is the place that we want to raise our family. It is a beautiful city and I think we are really going to love it. The trip was very productive as we looked at several properties and have our top 2 narrowed down. Tony is just working on negotiating the leases to determine which one is going to be best for us. He was also able to get some really positive feedback as far as the financing goes. We are finishing up paperwork with the bank and should know sometime this week whether everything went through.

I didn't pull out my camera as much as I should have so I really don't have many pictures from the trip. But we are going to head back up in May to look for our housing arrangements, so I'll take more then. I also learned on this trip what an excellent sleeper Miss Kaiya is. We requested a crib from the hotel for her and I was looking at it sit outside the front closet in the hotel room and thought that it would probably fit in the closet. Now before anyone calls DFS on me, it was not a completely enclosed closet. It had a rod about 2 feet from the ceiling with a shower curtain like thing. So I slid the crib inside and then when it was time for her to go to bed we just pulled the curtain closed. She was so good and got herself to sleep each night even though we had lights and tv on. It was great because then we didn't all have to go to bed at 9 p.m. :)

Here we are waiting in the car for Tony & Papa to get done meeting with the banker.

I took this picture about 5 minutes after we hit the road to head back to Florida. She is totally passed out.

So I attempted the near impossible today. Braiding Kaiya's hair. She tolerated it pretty well and kept the rubberbands in all day. I think next time I may only do it partway and tie the band at the base of her head. But she looked pretty darn cute today.

We are tired around here. And clearly don't sleep without one of our children in bed with us. Yeah, that's gonna have to end soon - we still have a fullsize bed. Can you say crowded?
Like father, like son...

Lazy Saturday morning... Kaiya climbed into bed with me around 7 a.m. yesterday. This is how Tony found us around 7:30 a.m. What a little sweetheart. We were so asleep we had no idea that he even took the picture.

We are tenatively planning to move in June. Of course, it could be sooner or later than that depending on how quickly this process takes. When we officially sign the lease on our commercial property I'm sure we'll post a picture. We're definitely getting pumped up about this move. I'm training in the office about 20 hours a week learning how to run Tony's office. I'm feeling good about it, but there are still more things to learn (i.e. - insurance-ick!) So that's the overdue update.

Kaleb & Kaiya with two of Connie's kids, Cassie & Samantha
Kaiya learned how to play (er... make noise) on the harmonica. Here she is in all her glory!

Here Kaleb, you try.

Is she playing with her mouth or her nose? You be the judge... Dear Ft. Wayne Airport:

Thank you for thinking of the parents traveling alone with small children. For that matter, thank you for thinking of ALL parents traveling with children. The wonderful play stations that you have in the terminals are ingenious. Forget standing right near our gate to get our seats as soon as pre-boarding starts. I'm gonna let my little squirt wear herself out as much as possible before being strapped into a stuffy, cramped airplane where I have to buy a drink of water. :) Ft. Wayne Airport... you are my hero.

Sincerly,

Me

These are pictures taken with Tony's dad and grandma. We don't see them very often so it was nice to spend the day with them. Kaiya enjoyed lots of horsey rides on Grandpa's knees and reading books with Grandma. Kaleb is at the perfect age for Grandma Cook to snuggle.

On the car ride home she was tuckered out.

Skate Night

One of my most favorite times while in Indiana was at the roller rink. Yep, that's right. The roller rink. My friend Connie invited us to her church's mother/daughter skate night. This was the church I went to in high school, so that was fun to see familiar faces. Anyway... it was Kaiya's first time roller skating and the smallest size skates fit her. She wasn't too sure about them at first because on her little legs, the skates were so heavy. But she did just fine.

We did about 3 laps before her legs got tired. She was smiling the whole time and managed to do it without falling down.

After she took the skates off she put her shoes on and pulled me around the rink. It was hilarious and she thought she was really cool doing it. :)
And here is the roller queen of the night, Mimi. Unbeknownst to us, my mom is an excellent roller skater. When we asked her how she got so good she attributed it to Saturdays at Kreklaw's in Eugene, Oregon as a jr. higher. Apparently this roller rink even had a bus that drove around and picked kids up to go to the rink for the afternoon. She and my aunt & uncle would go every weekend. Sweet.
I loves me some Sami.

MOO-OOO!

Kaiya currently loves anything to do with farms and Old McDonald. She refers to our library as "Old McDonald" because sometimes we check out a Baby Einstein DVD with farm animals on it. So when we went to Indiana, Uncle Brent has farmer friends that let us visit the cows. Kaiya loved it.

We had the Ashenfelters and Boyds over on Friday night for dinner and games. It was fun to have the kids interacting. Kaiya really loved the big girls and fortunately they were just fine having a little shadow for the evening. They chased and played together all night.

Here's Cassie, Samantha & Kaiya playing with Little People

Tyson holding Kaleb w/ Samantha

Connie taught me this cool feature about my camera that lets me pull out a certain color while leaving the rest black & white. I've been playing with it a bit. This is my first attempt.

Connie & Kaleb

Kaiya's first time eating Papa's french toast. This is a tradition in my family. My dad makes killer french toast and the morning of special occasions (our weddings) or when we come to visit he cooks up a batch of french toast. As you can tell, smiling with her mouth full, she loved it.

Kaiya is pretend gobbling her food...

Indiana

Last week we were able to take a trip to Indiana. I don't have time to post all of the pictures today, so they will have to come over the course of the next few days...

At the airport. Our plane was delayed an hour... as if travelling alone with 2 kids isn't challenging enough. :) Kaiya did okay in the terminal and then started getting a little sassy once we got on the plane. She really wanted nothing to do with the seatbelt. And there was no making her understand that the seatbelt wasn't an option. Fortunately a sweet lady next to us offered to hold Kaleb so I could corral Kaiya.

And after my desperate prayers, about 5 minutes in the air I looked over and found this. She literally passed out midsentence while telling me that, "NO!" She didn't want an avacado. :)
Ahhh.... The perfect flight. Two sleeping babies. Kaiya slept the entire flight and woke up just before we landed. I couldn't have planned it better myself. :)
Sink Bath!

We are sticking out our tongues because most of the bath Kaleb was sticking his out. And it figures that once we try to pose a picture he stops sticking his tongue out. Oh well!!