Singing Christmas Carols

This is kind of long but at least watch the end...Kayla will show you her latest "thing".

Gingerbread Houses

Every year, it is tradition in my family to make and decorate "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses. We invited our friends (and upstairs neighbors) the Bradley's to make them with us this year.

We appropriately made a "Reese" house. Jer was the architect and I was the decorator.

The back of our house----------->

The front of our house------->

It was a lot of fun and we are so glad Dustin and Emily came and enjoyed the evening with us. Thanks guys!

Game Time!-------->

(It was a close game, but I won of course....hehehe)

Kayla meets Santa....

This past weekend, we went on our annual trip to the Ethel M Chooclate Factory to see the lights on the cactus garden and get some yummy chocolate. This year was extra special because we were going to take Kayla to meet Santa. We knew she would probably scream and we would scar her for life, but every one has to met Santa on there first Christmas.

Waiting in line to see Santa...you can tell from Kayla's face she is not too sure about this tradition.

They meet and.....

She liked him! No tears, no frowns, Kayla just looked at the elf waving bells around like she was crazy! When we walked away from Santa, she kept staring back at him and waving. It was priceless!

Some lights...this picture really doesn't do them justice. Not quite temple square but as good as it gets in Vegas. As we walked through the gardens, we would stop and look at the lights and say "UWWA" and then Kayla would say "UWWA" after. It was a lot of fun!

The three amigos

Us and the M&M man.

Kayla and Mommy

SO, we've always known that we were going to make our blog private after a few months. Now that everyone who would want to read our blog is aware of it's existance, we are ready to pull the plug on the public blog stuff. SO, if you would like to have access to read our blog, please leave your e-mail address by clicking on the comment bar below. (Don't worry that everyone will be able to see your e-mail address, I have set it so no one will see the comments but myself.)Thanks for reading & Happy Holidays!

The stats are in!

(Warning: long journal entry)

Well, it's true, Kayla is now 9 months old! We went to the Doctor the day before Thanksgiving for her check-up. Here is how she is measuring up:

Weight: 18.2 lbs 40th percentile

Height: 28 in 75th percentile

Head: small.... 20th percentile

We were surprised that she only weighed 18 lbs! We were leaving for Utah straight from her Dr. appointment and we were afraid she was going to be over 20 lbs and we were going to have to run to the store and buy a new car seat for the trip. We are glad we didn't have to quite yet.

I had no idea those biscuits could be so messy!! You can see her tooth on the bottom right if you look closely.

She has teeth! Her first tooth came in a couple days before she turned 9 months old. Now she has the second bottom tooth coming in as well. They are moving really slowly and are just peeking out of her gums....but they are sharp little guys!!

So, her latest thing is waving. She waves her hand hello and bye-bye. When you wave at her she will wave back....it has been fun! She still claps, laughs, smiles a lot, babbles, says mamma, dadda, numnums, and off course she still screams now and then which we have been trying to work on! She can stand on her own for a few seconds but then she bends her knees and sits down because she is being cautious. She learned how to open the cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom and thinks it is funny to pull all the towels out.

She is very well trained....I mean we didn't train her but she just does things on cue. When we say "Yeaaah" she will start clapping and when we give her her blankie she automatically starts sucking her fingers. Silly girl!

She still LOVES bath time and tips her head back for me when I pour the water on her head...which she loves. It must feel good, like standing under a waterfall or something. I still use her toddler tub because our tub is so huge that it is really hard to use. So, Kayla floods the bathroom floor every bath because of her insane splashing (she blames rubber ducky but I know the truth).

She is sick right now for the first time. She caught a cold in Utah and then to my surprise she throw up a couple days later at the store. (fun times) She is doing better but still has a runny nose and I think she is getting a little cough. I hate coughs and really hope it doesn't progress. We are not taking her out of the house to avoid the cold air so hopefully she will be back to her old self soon!

Photo Mania the 3rd

To make up for some of my recent "wordy" (as Jer calls them) posts, I have posted another photo mania of all the silly things we (Kayla) have been doing:

All dressed up to go out to dinner.

When I am making dinner and Kayla is hungry at the same time, I will start her off with a Gerber toast or biscuit...and since I am ignoring her, she runs her messing hands through her hair while impatiently waiting for me to finish feeding her...how lovely!

Peeking over the edge to see the after Halloween candy.

Yummy!

Kayla loves to read her books...well maybe not read, but she looks at the pictures.

Imitating the baby on the front cover of this book. (She definitly has my big mouth!)


Eating broccoli

Uh Oh! Where did it go!

Because Kayla is teething (no teeth yet) she has a runny nose about every other week. I have to use the little suction thing to blow it which she hates. On our way to the bedroom one day to do this, I grabbed some Gummysavers to help entertain her. After finishing, I let her continue to play with the candy. Well, I checked on her as she was playing and this is what I found. She had opened the package! The funny thing was that she was not at all interested in the candy but was just chewing on the wrapper. Silly girl!

I know I post a lot of pictures of Kayla pushing her cart but I love this picture because she looks just like Jer when he was a baby.

We tucked Kayla in our bed for fun and the fingers went straight to the mouth and she was ready to sleep.

Giving kisses


Riding giraffe-girl

So, Jeremy wouldn't be caught dead in a pink shirt but he found one at his parents house and wore it when his Mom cut his hair. It even has a princess crown on it that says "Girls Camp 2006". He is trying to hide his shame with his arms. This is all the blackmail I will ever need! hehehe

Kayla caught red handed trying to steal the keys and escape. Not so fast little girl!

The Last Warm Weekend

So I know it is November but it has been in the 70's here in Vegas. It is funny that it's a couple weeks before Thanksgiving but last weekend was really nice so we decided to take advantage of it. We went out to Red Rock to enjoy the perfect fall day. Here are some pics of our little trip:

"We've got the chairs, we've got the jackets, we're all ready to go guys!"

We found leaves!!

I have been looking for a tree with changing leaves so I could get a fall picture.

A self shot

Our Fam

We climbed up a little rock hill. Last time we climbed up this part I carried Kayla...

...in my belly when I was 6 months prego!

Mommy and Kayla

Kayla eating a rock and me sitting like a frog.

Here is a little video of Kayla to document her first "official" visit to Red Rock. (We are not on as scary of a cliff as Jer makes it look.)

A Little Pick Me Up!

"Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness." I was reading the conference Ensign this morning looking for a talk to give my visiting teaching message from. I was a slacker and didn't make it to the Relief Society Broadcast so I started by reading the talks from that session. I read the talk by President Uchtdorf "Happiness, Your Heritage". Lately, I have been wondering what more I could be doing and I was feeling a little underachieved. I don't know if any of you ever feel this way; but this talk was exactly what I needed. It helped me, so I thought I'd post about it in case anybody else needed a little pick me up.

He talks about having happiness like our Heavenly Father's happiness. Two objectives that contribute to our Heavenly Father's happiness are creating and being compassionate. This made me feel very good because I love to create things (cooking, card making, crafts, goodies, hair bows, this blog), and I like to give those things to others/brighten someone's day even if it is just my daughters day. I have been feeling that just sitting at home cleaning, cooking, crafting, and caring for my family was not very prestigious. I know we've all heard a thousand times that being a mother is up there on the priority list but that doesn't stop Satan from sneaking in and making us feel less then we are. This article was a reminder that what I was doing was good in my Heavenly Father's eyes and if I was happy doing it, then no other opinion matters. It also gave me new strive to be better at what I do and to add on to my life in ways of service, education, and just building up the talents my Heavenly Father has given me. We all have different purposes to achieve in this life so you can't compare what you do to what others do.

Anywho, that is probably too much personal information for some of you but I felt like sharing. I am not preaching by any means, but if you want to read the article by this great apostle I have posted a link :

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=15674bb52a73d110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1

Dinner Woes...Please Help!

I like to cook......and bake. I won't call myself a pro by any means but it is a job requirement for me so I might as well try and perfect it as much as possible. I don't know about you but there are weeks when dinner seems totally impossible to make. No, not cuz I'm too busy or anything like that, it's just that I've run out of things to make. I am one who has to plan ahead or it is really hard to whip things up spur of the moment. (Props to all of you who can do this...I'm jealous!) I keep my shelves stocked so that I have anything I need and can plan a week ahead. It is usually on Monday when I figure out that I didn't plan the week's meals out because I was playing all weekend. And it is always those Mondays when we've had shepards pie and haystacks one two many times the last couple weeks and everything I can make just sounds boring or is missing something. Those days when I think about what to have for dinner all day long until it's 5 o'clock and Jeremy's home and there isn't any food ready. I think part of the problem is that I have become a little more health concious and the fast, easy meals like frozen stuff or fast food are just way too unheathly and I can't get myself to buy them.

To help solve my dilema, I was wondering if some of you would share some of your favorite meals with me so I can add them to our menu so I don't run out of ideas so fast. It can just be a list of things you make to refresh my memory of possible meals OR if you have some personal recipes of favorite that would be great too! (any suggestions on how to spruce up the side dishes would be helpful too because canned green beans and green salad are getting old!)

Well, I didn't post when Kayla turned 7 months old and now we've past 8 months last week so I thought I better do a little Kayla update so two months don't pass us by.

Just to back up a little, I got Kayla's picture taken (as if we don't take enough as it is) when she turned 6 months old so I wanted to post those pictures. She won't smile because she didn't really like the lady which is unusual for Kayla who smiles at everyone, everywhere.

Big Eyes

Me and My Giraffe

Half of a Smile
Oops! I tipped them over!

Yummy!

So, Kayla has changed a little the past two months. She has more hair now but it's still crazy and fluffy.

She still has a huge smile and loves to play hide and seek with Daddy.

She loves to clap, laugh, click her tongue, shake her head "no", and eat everything within her mouth's reach.

She is working on feeding herself finger foods and does well with the bigger biscuits and stuff but the little things get stuck on her hand and she gets frustrated cuz she can't get them in her mouth. She needs to develop her fine motor skills a little more to get that part down.

Always smiling!

Since about six months and the weather cooling down to the 80's, Kayla has been sleeping with her blankies. I say blankies because she has a bunch of them that she switches off with. She loves the soft, silky feeling. As you can see, she would rather play on the outside of the toy then stuck inside now.

Here is a video of Kayla walking with her little walker toy. She love to practice moving those legs and she thinks she is so big.

She is a joy to be around and is still a very happy, outgoing baby. We love having her in our lives.