Drawing for Grandpa Busby!

Grandpa, Kayla drew this for your office wall. Hope you like it!

Night at the Museum, FAO Schwartz, Central Park, etc.

Our first weekend here, and day with Keith off work we went exploring, and Kayla loves the movie the night at the Museum and so we decided to go to The Museum of Natural History. Kayla got a picture with "Dumbdumb you have gum gum?" She was saying that to Luke as we Went through the museum. We walked through Central Park to get there. It was beautiful, and at times I couldn't believe we were really in NYC it was so beautiful and green.

We also went to Times Square and then to FAO Schwartz where they had life sized lego figures of all the star wars characters. The kids loved the toy store. We walked all the way home after that, but not before heading to the grocery store, and carrying all the groceries home and up all the stairs. We figured out we walked about 10 miles in all that day. But it was fun.

That last picture is a typical picture of me in New York when Keith is at work. Try that with an umbrella also on the rainy days....it is crazy! But we have fun. Some people give me crazy looks though. But I guess it is quite a lot of faces to see all at once.

Playground Hopping

The first day after we arrived here I took the kids and we went Playground hopping. I am learning here in the city that there are different terms for thing than in other places. There is a difference between playgrounds and parks because there are several playgrounds within central park, and other parks. Also there is a difference between a grocery store and a super market. I didn't know there was a difference, but apparently super markets are bigger and have more, and grocery stores are smaller and just have a few things that you would need.
The first playground we went to was in Marcus Gravey Park only a few blocks from our house.

Then we went to two different playgrounds in the North corners of Central Park. There was one really fun new one just for toddlers that had a sand box, and fun rope toys and other cool gadgets. We were tired by the end of the day, but had a great time.

HARLEM APARTMENT

Here is our expensive, but nice furnished Harlem apartment. We call Kayla and Luke's room the peter Pan room because the tall windows and blinds, and twin beds remind us of Peter Pan....kayla loves disney movies.
We brought a play pen for Luke, but of course, as soon as we got here he discovered how to climb out of it, and now he is in a bed. But he is going to sleep quite well in a bed, so we are lucky for that.

Our bedrooms is quite small. I don't know if you can tell, but there is not much space on either side of the bed, you pretty much have to get in from the bottom, but it works fine, and the bed is quite comfortable.


The Stairs in the front remind me of Sesame Street with the big long staircases they sit on. We thought we were on the third floor, but I have soon discovered we are really on the 4th, if you count the bottom floor under the outside staircase...no elevator. But we have managed to make it work.

We are that third window up there...that's our floor. We have three doors, and keys we use to get into our apartment. We also have a screen we can use to see whose at the front door.

Utah B4 we left for New York

Kayla is such a nice big sister. She loves holding Darren even though I don't let her as often as she would like. Her and Luke can't get enough of Darren, but I think he gets a bit nervous by them sometimes because they get within centimeters of his face. Intense.

The week before we left for New York we went to Keith's Mission President's house with some of his fellow companions. It was fun ot have a night out among all the packing and cleaning and getting ready to go, and to reunite with some of his companions.

After Keith had already left for Cinncinnati I had to go down to Provo a few times..I refused to live in my house still since I would have to clean it all by myself. While there waiting for mail, and what not we went to the park...the night b4 I left, and it scared me for the next day because the kids were running all over the park, and i was worried about them running into the road. Kayla had to go to the bathroom, and I didn't want to take all three of them to the bathroom, and so we found a tree, but she missed a bit, and luke got sand all over him, but the one fun thing of the whole fiasco was putting Darren in the swing for his first time. He looks cute, and I guess uncaring about the whole thing.

One of the days to break up the monotony of packing we took the kids up to Provo Canyon to "hike", but with a 3yr old, 2yr old, and new born you quickly realize a hike isn't very possible, but we walked from a park up to Bridal Veil falls, and Kayla and Luke loved playing in the water. It was really beautiful up there, and I have determined that we are going to have to go up there a lot more often next year. I have not been taking advantage of the fact we live in such a beautiful place.

Kansas City...Weddings, Blessings,...

We have been BUSY!!! Keith finally finished his first year of school about 3 weeks ago! I'm LOVING IT! No more studying at least for now. But about a week before school ended we found out that we were no longer going to be in LA for the summer, instead NYC. It is crazy! At first I told Keith that I wasn't going, but I was just totally blown away with the change that it was going to be from LA. We went away to Kansas City for my little sister's wedding in the Nauvou Temple, and we also blessed Darren there. We still didn't have housing for New York when we got there. Keith and I were totally stressing. When we got back from Kansas City for 10 days we had a week before leaving for NY, but we subleased our apt. so it took us all week to get it ready to sublet. Keith blessed Darren, and really it was wonderful, but unfortunately I didn't hear much because Kayla was trying to get out of the pew the whole time. Darren wore the blessing outfit that Luke wore, and alot of my brothers wore. My mom made it.

We are excited that we are near friends here in NY, and would love to have anyone come visit us who wants to. I took the kids to Central Park yesterday, our first full day here. It was really fun. I must say though I have been getting quite the looks from people when they see that I have two kids in the double stroller, and a babe in the bjorn also. I think I must look kind of silly myself.

Darren is home!

So having three kids is quite the adjustment. We came home from the hospital, and thankfully Keith's parent's have been here helping me out. I think I would for sure be going crazy by now if they were not here....or not going crazy, full on CRAZY! Keith was really busy with school since he left yesterday to go to South Africa and Dubai on a school all expense paid for trip. (hard life, huh?). And without Keith last night I realized how much he helps out since putting the kids to bed was quite the task. We are really enjoying Darren though. He isn't as good of a sleeper as Kayla and Luke were when they were born, but I can't complain he isn't terrible...I'm just not a night person at all... I like my sleep.
Kayla and Luke just love him, and they as probably all siblings do, attempt to pick him up on their own. Scary. Kayla also was rocking him a bit too hard in the car seat, and he wasn't buckled in, luckily my mother in law saw, and stopped her before he came flying out.

Yesterday Kayla cut some of Luke's hair...whoops. Didn't realize those little kid scissors could do that.

I'm just sooo grateful for all that Keith's mom has done to help out with cooking cleaning, and everything, it is making it all so much more enjoyable.

I think Keith is still alive, but i haven't heard from him since he left Atlanta...we'll see. He is going on a Safari tomorrow night. Pretty Sweet.

Darren Smith Busby

DARREN SMITH BUSBY
7 lbs. 20z. 19 1/2 inches long
March 3, 2008 5:33pm

Everything went so well! We're so grateful he is here, and he is so healthy, and everything went so smoothly. We are so grateful for everyone's prayer's and service in our behalf. Kayla and Luke adore their new little brother. What good siblings they are.

FAMILY OF 5!

Valentine's

Kayla and Luke looked so cute and coordinated last week at church I wanted to take a pic of them. Unfortunately this is the only decent shot I got. But aren't they cute?

Keith was so cute this year for Valentine's Day. He surprised me and bought the Billy Blanks boot camp Elite Tae Bo Dvd's....all this winter it is hard to always get "out" and exercise. I was impressed. He also surprised me with tickets to the BYU singer's and Concert choir Valentine's Concert (he meant to get tickets to Jungle Book playing at BYU, but found out it was a kids play), but it was really fun, especially since he lined up Rachel to babysit and everything.

Most everything else is go with the flow around here, though it seems time is flying so quickly. I can't believe we are having our THIRD baby in three week"ish". That seems unreal to me. We are parents of three, and a family of five almost! Wow! Last week our dishwasher broke, and so it has been frusturating doing the dishes by hand for two weeks. I guess I should be grateful I normally have a dishwasher. They are bringing a new one tomorrow. Alleluia! And our dryer and washer have been giving us problems, along with Luke being sick with some strain of the flu...it has been an interesting week. I'm starting to go through the crazy cleaning frenzy the pregnant woman do right before having a kid... I miraculously cleaned out my refrigerator...one of my least favorite jobs! Wahoo!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sledding!

Keith went sledding at Rock Canyon. Being pregnant, of course, I watched, but Keith sent Kayla down the hill all by herself the second we got there, and she biffed it hard at the bottom. After that she was unwilling to continue sledding and resorted to making snow castles with her shovel and bucket. KEITH! He went off a few jumps and got some good air. As you can tell once again Luke was super happy about the whole event...he sat on my lap the whole time.

Winter wonderland of Provo!

"Enjoying" the Utah Winter Snow! Can you tell Luke Loves it! :O) He cries everytime we step foot out in it... so a couple of times I have stuck him out in our swing in the backyard, and Kayla and I build forts or whatever, and he seems content enough as long as he is in the swing. Keith was pretty pumped about his fort in the backyard...actually I started it, but then it motivated Keith to make it bigger. I guess I never took a picture of his finished product.

Keith got a gift certificate to Cabela's for Christmas from my parents, so a few weeks ago we trekked down to Apline looking for exciting stuff to get him. Of course the kids enjoyed all the stuffed animals, and fish. We even got to watch the fish feeding--I didn't know they fed trout baby goldfish, or maybe they weren't trout, but they whatever they were they were eating live goldfish, and they were quick. Kayla and Luke also enjoyed the shooting range, but maybe that wasn't a good idea since the other day Kayla and luke both had fake guns, and Kayla had her little teddy bear set up on a stool, and she was shooting it, and then telling Luke to saying, "watch Luke it fell down, we got him!" Oh dear.