Feverin' 4th

This was Jayda's first 4th of July holiday and it is a big deal in the West family. This is the holiday you aren't allowed to miss, no excuses. We go up to Deweyville and spend the whole day playing games and eating and hanging out. My favorite part is volleyball. I could play that the whole time and luckily this year we played a lot. Then we go to my grandma and grandpa West's house in Brigham City for a bbq and a rockin fireworks show.
This year the holiday started out a little hotter than we wanted. Jayda had a fever for 3 days straight that got up to over 103 degrees! Bryce took her into the pediatrician while I was at work and she assured him that she was okay but if it went on longer than 4 days to take her into the instacare. Luckily the fever only lasted 3 days and by Sunday she was doing much better.

We were hoping she would enjoy the pool with the other kids but she ended up being happier playing on the outside of the pool.

Here are all of the Wests. This picture is a tradition. The grand kids also have this tradition but I don't have it on my camera.

This is our family at grandma's house. Bryce has the traditional sunburn after playing outside all day.

On Sunday we took Jayda to Mueller Park to let her swing and play a little bit since she was feeling better. She went down the big slide with grandpa.

She loves her grandma and grandpa so much!

This picture was way too funny not to post!

The three of us were so grateful to be able to spend time with our family and celebrate Independence Day. God Bless America!!

Let the festivities begin

We are so happy that summer is finally here and are having fun taking advantage of the heat so far.
We had a great time going to the zoo with Shantaye, Mike and Crue. (he he that rhymed)





We also had the chance to spend a few days at Southfork camping and tubing with my family.

This pack n play was a lifesaver. Jayda did really well with playing in it and it saved her from getting dirty and crawling all over the ground. She was such a great little camper.

Props

I wanted to write a little bit about Bryce. He is such a hard worker in every aspect of his life. He is doing great in school, is an amazing dad and husband and is doing extremely well at his job.

Since starting at L3 less than 2 years ago he has been promoted 3 times. He was also just awarded the Bronze Achievement Award. What's that you ask? We weren't quite sure either until they sent a letter home with him. The letter praised him for being such a valuable asset to the company and said that he had worked 118 hours of overtime already this year. That is incredible!

Bryce treats every aspect of his life with as much dedication as he does his job. Jayda and I are so blessed to be a part of his life. We are both very proud of not only these major achievements at work but the ones in other areas also.

Elephante

I got a little envelope in the mail yesterday with no return address. Curious, I opened it and all it contained was a little piece of paper. You know the kind, it was my new visiting teaching assignment. I looked to see who I would be visiting and was excited to see that it had gone from three people to one. Then I looked below my name to see who my companion would be and at first I didn't recognize the name. Then suddenly it hit me..... Elephante. She is my next door neighbor and we call her elephante' because she is a very heavy walker. You can hear her clomping into church and walking around in her house. I swear the woman is building a car in her kitchen, I don't know what else would be that loud. Crap. Seriously? I don't like her. She just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe she's nice. But I don't want to like her. I am happy having nothing to do with her.

I have a feeling the Lord has another life lesson in store for me. Bleh! :)

Remember when?

Remember when I first started this blog and I was determined to win a Wii from my 99.5? My goal was to win something someday. I haven't stopped in my pursuit and I finally won something! I won a book and software called 30 meals in 1 day. It tells you how to make 30 meals (or less if you want) in one day and freeze them all so that you always have something you can pull out of the freezer when you are short on time. The recipes are easy and made of simple ingredients that everyone would like. It was probably the least exciting thing I have ever entered to win, but it will probably end up being a really great thing for our family and hopefully soon I will be posting about how it all turned out!

Let go

If you ask my dad (or probably anybody) he will say that I am extremely stubborn. When my mom can tell I am going through a hard time she usually asks me if I want my dad to give me a father's blessing. Most of the time I turn her down and she looks at me like I'm crazy. What is there to lose? Why on earth would I not want a blessing?! I'm stubborn, that's why. And I don't want to cry. I know I will.
So I won't go into my sob story of why I have been in one of the darkest moods I have probably ever been in, but I want to write down this experience as a way to bear my testimony and as a way to remember. I have been trying to fight back every day but a lot of days I think Satan won those battles. Finally on Thursday I decided to swallow my pride. I needed some help here because I was obviously getting worse and worse on my own. I asked Bryce to give me a blessing that night.
When he gave me that blessing I cried. I knew that would happen, but I could immediately feel a feeling of comfort and as I listened to the words of the blessing I knew that they were coming straight from Heavenly Father. There were things Bryce said that were more than what I expected to hear. I asked Bryce afterwards if he felt like he was being told what to say. He said that he was, that the words were just coming into his head.
I am so thankful for the power of the priesthood and the huge difference the blessing that I received has been on my heart.
The lessons in primary the last two weeks have been about the power of the priesthood. I think my little 7 year olds already know the lessons I am teaching them, but now that I am 25 I think I am finally getting it.

9 months

Jayda's 9 month appointment was on April 30th. Her stats are:
Weight: 19 pounds-55%
Length: 29.25 inches-79.5%
Head: 17.25 inches-40%

She can pull herself up to a stand.
She has graduated from an infant bather to just being in the tub.

She loves anything to do with swinging.

She doesn't love the grass, but doesn't hate it.

She helped me celebrate my first official mother's day.

Her two bottom teeth have also cut through her gums.