Thursday, July 23, 2009

What happens in Vegas...stays in Vegas...

Hopefully my chronology doesn't totally confuse those reading.  I will attempt to write about what has happened over the past 7 months along with trying to keep current with what is going on right now.  Since Paul and I both have the luxury of working from home we decided to take a one month trip West to visit with family.  The kids did a great job in the car, we drove 25 hours straight.  We also were brave enough to bring our crazy dog.

Upon arriving in Las Vegas the first thing we did was stop at In-and-Out Burger, Paul's favorite place to eat.

Staying with my grandparents is quite the challenge.  They have these wacky sleeping and eating schedules and I had to do quite a bit of cleaning in the fridge, kitchen and bathroom.  I seriously spent 3 hours at least cleaning out the fridge and scrubbing so we could put our "American" groceries away.  I was amazed at the bizarre items I found in the fridge including batteries and 5 bottles of wine never opened (my grandparents don't drink wine by the way).  I think Filipino's are the kings of condiments, I have a fridge in my basement just for condiments :)


We need to have variety in our menu, but Grandma and Grandpa eat the same stuff everyday: Pandesal, sausage and a boiled egg with coffee for breakfast.  Cheese sandwich for lunch.  Grandpa then has a mid day beer with some leftovers from last night and for dinner they eat a frozen entree from a dinner they made 3 months ago.

I'm not sure if I will last another 7 days having my grandmother complain about everything and asking what I'm doing and where I'm going every few minutes.  I guess maybe all old people act like this.  We are starting to get very stir crazy so we try to go out somewhere every night for a few hours, of course....the old folks get mad when we leave.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Kylie's Baptism

Kylie was so nervous before her baptismal interview with Bishop LeStarge even though we knew she was prepared for it. We had the missionaries, Elder Ford and Elder Monzello, teach Kylie all of the discussions before her baptism. This was such a great experience for both our family and also great practice for the missionaries. We were blessed by having them in our home once a week for the past 2 months.




This picture was taken just before Kylie went into the Bishop's office. Although she was nervous she was so excited knowing she was one step closer to being Baptized.


Do they look ready or what! Paul and I cried both tears of joy and sadness as we prepared a slideshow of pictures for her baptism, from birth until today. Kylie is our baby and she may be our last! We bought her this dress last Easter because I knew how hard finding all white dresses were. I'm really glad I bought the right size and it fit. She said it looked like an "old fashion" dress, which it did, but she grew to love it.


Lana was such a great support to Kylie as she prepared for this special day. Lana is a great example and tries to teach Kylie right from wrong.



We were glad Great-Grandma Wyer and Uncle Chris, Aunt Monica and all of Lana's cousins attended. Lana and Kylie are now the only member cousins, so they have a lot of missionary work ahead of them!



So many friends from our old ward and friends we don't get to see often came to see Kylie's baptism and also came our Open House/Birthday Party at our house. David Scott (the owner of Paul's company) and his wife Auralee are seen here.



When I first moved here from Las Vegas I was so lucky to have April Rice and Anne Marie Johnson fellowship me. They are such good friends and always support our family. Both April and Anne Marie are so spunky-I just love them!


Erin, Shawn and Taite Beus have helped us so much since we moved here too. Erin is like my own personal interior design consultant and helps me find window treatment ideas, and also helped me pick all of the colors of my house when I had it professionally painted a few months ago. She is a genius.


Look at those mischevious Willerth kid smiles. These two come from a family of 9 children and their parents are awesome! Dillan is our favorite babysitter and the girls get so excited when they know she is coming to take care of them. She cooks, cleans, does dishes and leaves the house cleaner than I left it.


Here is a candid photo of everyone eating. Love Chris Wrights look as I blinded him with my flash. Take a look at our new multi photo frame on the wall.


My boss/sales partner Bill, his wife Cindy and son Teige.


Auntie Jackie (my brother Paul's wife) and Gavin my nephew did not look too thrilled to have their picture taken. Kylie smiled so brightly all day long. I made enough Pancit to feed about 70 people and it was so yummy. I was a bit scared because I do not make Filipino food, I would have made my mom proud.



Dr. Londos our chiropractor (who we all see 4 times a week) was so kind to come and share this day with us. He is the most positive-chipper guy I have ever met.





Kylie was lucky enough to be baptized on her birthday. I let her pick her cake (white with chocolate mousse) and it was some of the best cake we had ever had.



She can barely wait to cut the cake.



Tia Dede (Jenna's best friend) is teaching Kylie the tricks of the "cash business". Kylie received a huge wad of cash from Jenna's boss, "Mr. Bill" and had never seen so many singles in her life.

$100 in singles feels good. Can you tell how happy she is? Mr. Bill is very generous and we are so thankful for all the nice things he has done for our family the past few years.


The girls love playing the game Apples to Apples, but sometimes the topics are too hard, so we found this junior version that I think they will enjoy so much more. This was a gift from the family.


She can play countless hours having imaginary play and her favorite thing to do is "pretend cook".




Tia Dede and Tio Ziggy bought Kylie some "booty-licious" jeans. Tia is puerto rican and she's got style!


Tia won't admit it, but she bought Ky this gift because Tia really is a Miley fan.



Oh geez! Another small stuffed animal in the house, aka Emmy's doggy chew toy. I think Ky could be a vet one day, she loves little animals.



Since the girls think Mommy and Daddy may never have another baby, they treat their cousin Gavin like a doll.

The Guerrero-Wyer cousins exchanged Christmas gifts late this year and as you can see Gavin will not part with his elmo slippers. He looks like a little Chinese baby and you would never guess he is 1/2 Ecuadorian 1/2 Filipino.

Ethan is in a military phase and reallly wants to be a Marine. This was our favorite gift to find for him for Christmas. Uncle Paul even took Ethan to the gun store a few weeks back to show him guns up close since he really wants to fight in a war!


One day Ethan will smile a normal smile in a cousin picture.

The day was busy and exciting for all of us in the Wyer family. We are so thankful so many friends and family members came out in the freezing cold weather to witness Kylie's baptism and we hope they were able to feel the spirit throughout the day.

Girls Visit to Mario Tricoci-Big Girl Haircuts!

Lana had a great haircut from Mario a few months ago so we decided to let Kylie join in the fun as she wanted to look her best for her Baptism. We realized there was a Mario salon closer to our house and I took the girls to get pampered. Kylie usually gets a "kids" hair cut and this was the first time she had someone wash her hair before the haircut. She looooved this.



Lana's hair is naturally curly so she has to get a really good haircut or it turns out crazy after she showers. Karla was an awesome stylist and found a way to make her hair look longer.

They cut about 3 inches from Kylie's hair and she was a little apprehensive at first. She definitely likes having shorter hair now because she doesn't have to tie it back in gym class anymore.
The girls looked like supermodels when they were done and they thought it was a such a treat to be treated like big girls for the day.




Sunday, January 4, 2009

New Fridge


So a gift to ourselves a few months ago was a new refrigerator. The old one we had came with the house and the bulb on the inside didn't work. We were always searching for food in the dark. We also got sick of having to bend down to try to search the refrigerator. Our new fridge is kind of like a space ship, and most people can't figure out how to work the water an ice dispenser. This bottom freezer fits so much food and we love the LED lights on the inside.

Took the Girls to See Wicked!



The musical Wicked is leaving Chicago in 3 weeks, so we decided to get the girls tickets as a Christmas gift. We had awesome seats and sat in the orchestra section. We couldn't let them leave without souvenirs so we were able to find shirts small enough for both Lana and Kylie.

This is the first true musical we have taken the girls to, and they were psyched. Lana and Kylie were a little bit too short and had to sit on our jackets so they could be tall enough to see the stage. It could have also been because we had some abnormally tall South American audience members sitting infront of us. Paul and I were annoyed and humored by the guy who sat right in front us. He kept bobbing his head left to right and blocking our field of view, causing us to also bob our head left to right to see the stage.


Before the play we ate at Greek Islands on Halsted, one of our favorite family spots. We ate Calamari and Saganaki. The girls love when the cheese is set on fire.



The girls loved the music so much we have been playing the soundtrack at home eversince we saw the show. Oh, by the way, Paul's favorite scene/song is "Defying Gravity". We love to hear him sing it.