Ramblings

I've been a slacking blogger lately (not that anyone cares). I've actually been kinda busy lately, strangely enough. But I have a little time now so I thought I'd just do some rambling. I'm in Utah right now, but unfortunately Skye is sick again and I haven't been feeling very good, either. But I wasn't feeling so bad that I couldn't enjoy some time with Lance before he flew back to Phoenix. The only time we ever get to go on a date is when we visit my parents so it isn't something that happens all that often. For anyone who has never been to a laser show at Clark Planetarium (or elsewhere where they have them), but has ever thought about it, GO TO A SHOW!!!! We went to a U2 laser show there on Monday night and it was soooo cool! It was totally worth the expensive FrontRunner tickets we paid for to get down to Salt Lake! Both of us left the show feeling totally inspired.

Then, yesterday afternoon before Lance's flight left, we spent some time in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I know I say a lot of good things about Phoenix on my blog and that is because it is a really great place and I love living there, love it a million times more than living in Orangeville, but being in the mountains made me long to be here. It was so beautiful, peaceful, and inspiring. It made me sad, in a way, that we couldn't have moved to Salt Lake. It's great to be able to experience life outside of Utah, but for those who still live here, don't take it for granted because there are a lot of amazing things about it. I do wish there were mountains around Phoenix.

Anyway, there's my ramblings. There will be more pictures and movies and stuff added as soon as I can. Until then...

Husband Tag

When I was "tagged" awhile back with questions about Skye, it made me think about my friends who don't have kids. And I started thinking about husbands instead. There are some of you bloggers out there that have husbands I know pretty well, but most of them I really don't. So I thought it would be fun to start a "husband tag." Here are my answers about my husband.


Name: Lance David Stine


Birthday: July 20, 1972


Where from: Originally Farmington, Utah, but spent most of his years in and around Salt Lake


Job: Computer Programmer for NIC USA


Favorite T.V. show: I can't say, he rarely ever watches t.v. When he does it is usually the news or basketball


Favorite book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest


Hobbies, interests: Anything that is outside like hiking, climbing, camping, or just hanging out. He also likes swimming, excercising, yoga, meditation, and reading


Favorite Foods: Anything that is healthy


What you like about him: He is a good person, he's very wise, he's fun, he's a great dad who likes to do fun crazy things with our daughter, he's attractive and strong, and he loves me


Any other interesting facts: Something I think is interesting is all of the climbing trips he used to go on, including to other countries--he's been to France and to Canada to climb. He also lived in Hawaii for six months picking pineapples

Now (for those who are interested) I tag Jessica, Camille, Alexis, Becky, Jenn, Elise, and Emily

Columbus Day Adventure

Lance got Columbus Day off Monday so we decided to go on a little vacation up into the mountains to go climbing. We left Sunday afternoon and stayed the night in Payson, this really cool mountain town about 90 miles north of Phoenix. After eating our grilled buffalo burgers, we enjoyed the nice, cool weather at a park we found. Skye had soooo much fun throwing her ball and chasing it all over the parking lot. I have a great video of her that I'll put on later.

We enjoyed this beautiful sunset over the pond at the park.




Monday morning, we went to a place called Jack's Canyon to climb. I thought we were going to have to turn back because of the cold. The freezing wind that was blowing didn't help either. Skye looked so cute in her hat, but it is a little big so it kept falling down over her eyes. She wasn't very happy in the cold, but luckily, once we got into the canyon, the wind vanished and we had only beautiful sunlight to warm things up. Skye had fun playing outside and climbing over little rocks while Lance and I had fun climbing up the big rock wall. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of us climbing. It's kind of hard to take a picture when you are belaying someone and trying to keep an eye on your energetic daughter! Overall, it was a great trip!

Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore...

I guess I should really say, "Skye, I have a feeling we're not in Utah anymore." But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Utah is definitely home and there are things that I miss like family, friends, big mountains and canyons, the smell of the Great Salt Lake. But Phoenix has some great things to offer, too. It may not have Utah's mountains, but it has desert mountains that are pretty amazing and beautiful as well. We went to Camelback mountain today to scope out the climbing there and it was awesome! It had some amazing views and some fun looking climbing. Skye was so happy to be outside and wanted to do everything we were doing. She saw us climbing on the boulders so she wanted to climb on them, too. And she's actually getting pretty good at the climbing thing these days. It's our dream come true as parents!
This is one of the rare moments that she actually let one of us hold her. She wanted to be down and playing around most of the time.
Our climbing girl!

She had to climb up this step first...
and then she wanted to get on the rock with me!
It was such a nice day today! The weather is finally good! It was great to enjoy the cool, fresh air. It even rained a little bit. The sky and the green beneath looked beautiful!

Here's Skye, once again, wanting to do what we were doing. She hiked up the trail a lot of the way--with help, but she did not want to be carried.
Here's a picture of all of us on Camelback Mountain!
She kept wanting to climb the rocks. We found this nice, little, baby sized one for her to try out.
One last picture looking out on Phoenix. We had a great day.

The Cutest Picture Ever!

Isn't this the cutest picture of Skye ever?!!!!! I just love it! I took it the other morning just after she woke up. She found her hat on the floor, put it on, and just started playing. I ran to grab the camera because I thought she looked so cute and I just happened to get lucky enough to get her in this extremely perfect pose. I think I might frame it and put it up in our living room it is so cute! Just had to share!

Tag, I'm it!

I didn't think I'd ever get tagged because I blog so much anyway, but hey, I'm not doing anything else right now and it sounds like fun.

Name and Meaning: Skye Leigh. Back during my Snow days (Snow College for those who don't know), for some reason the name Skye came into my head and I thought it was a beautiful name. I decided that if I ever got married and had a baby girl someday, I wanted to name her Skye. And then I did! Lance didn't object to the name. My mom liked the middle name Leigh, for me, but for some reason never gave it to me. I liked it, too, and thought it sounded beautiful with Skye. So that's how Skye Leigh came to be.

Age: 15 (almost 16) months

Nicknames: I call her little one and everyone else calls her baby Skye. Someday, they have got to stop (I have) because she isn't really a baby anymore, but that's just what everyone has always called her so I guess it's hard to not call her that anymore.

Favorite Activities: Swimming and playing outside. She loves to be outside more than anything!

Favorite Foods: Cheese and sweet fruits such as strawberries, peaches, pears, and mango.

Least Favorite Foods: Vegis, of course. About once or twice a week she will eat some peas or beans or something, but other than that she has become a very picky eater.

Favorite Toy: Her stuffed bunny is her absolute favorite thing. It is what she cuddles with when she sleeps. She always has to have her bunny. But after that, her new car and her doll stroller would probably be her favorites.

Favorite Book: She really likes the "lift-the-flap" books by Karen Katz, but I'm not sure that she really has a favorite, yet. She absolutely loves books, though!

Favorite item of clothing: Skye prefers to be naked (who doesn't?!) more than anything. But I guess these days, when it comes to clothes, she likes hats the best.

What makes her happy? Mommy, Daddy, Cookie, Papa, Trav, her bunny, food, juice, to be outside. These are just a few things.

What makes her sad? When Mommy has to go bye, when Mommy is around, but isn't giving her 100% of her attention 100% of the time. (This makes Mommy sad, too, because it means she has an incredibly difficult time getting anything done around the house.) And there could be some more things, but we'll just leave it at that.

Now I tag Becky, Sam, and Alison (If Becky ever sees this!)

A Day at Saguaro Lake

Like Father, like daughter! Skye loves to try and do all of the things we do. She especially likes to "excercise" with us. That was something she would do with grandpa while we were staying at his house. We went to Saguaro Lake this morning. Yes, there are actually quite a few lakes just outside of Phoenix. We didn't know what it would be like, but thought a day at the lake would be fun. Skye decided to try on her life jacket as we were getting ready to go this morning.
Here we are! Or here Skye is. I was disappointed in the beach. I was hoping for a nice sandy beach like the one at Millsite (where we've taken Skye before), but it wasn't very nice and was totally muddy. The first thing I did was slip and fall, scraping my knee up really bad. But the scenery was beautiful.
Lance blew up our new raft while we went to play in the water.
Skye made a little friend who also loved the water. He was so cute!
Skye had fun in the water except for every once in awhile when some mud would get stuck on her fingers or hands. She did not like that at all!
Here's Lance bringing Skye back from the beach so we could get the raft and try it out.The lake was pretty shallow where we were at so we just hung out and floated around a bit. It sure felt nice, though, being on the water like that. And how often do you get to hang out on a lake that is surrounded by saguaros?

Besides having fun in the raft, Skye also had a lot of fun climbing all over this rock.
She is getting to be a good little climber. That makes us so happy!
She had fun getting down into the water like this just before we left.
I'm sure she will make a good little swimmer someday, too!

More Randomness

Here's Skye dragging my purse around in the wind a couple of weeks ago. Gee, I sure love it when she drags my purse around on the ground! Here's my little hippie girl!
Skye likes to play with our new iPod. We wonder if this could be a bad thing...

Return of the Crazy Hair

I keep wondering when Skye's hair is going to grow thicker and more evenly. But until then, we'll just deal with her crazy, thin hair. She woke up from a nap with this rooster tail in back one day. It's got to be one of her craziest hair moments ever!

My Good Little Helper

It's been hard, lately, to take pictures of Skye smiling because she always seems to have her hands (most of the time) or some other object in her mouth! But I thought this was cute anyway. She always looks cute in this hat and look at those blue eyes! Skye is such a good little helper already. She is really good at handing you the silverwear out of the dishwasher to put away. She loved to help do this at my mom and dad's house.
Of course, she has to let you know she has her hat on.
But then she keeps on helping!