Christmas 2010

I guess I wasn't in the picture taking mood this Christmas. Half of the pictures I have posted are stolen from other people. We had a great Christmas. We spent lots of time with family and with each other which was the best part.

It has been a long time since we have been up to see Bryce's mom so we took a trip up to North Ogden to visit and exchange gifts. Holley loves Christmas and goes all out. We were happy to see her.

On the day before Christmas eve we went to Temple Square to see the lights. They are always fun to see and it's a good activity to help bring the spirit of Christ into your life during the Christmas season.

I let my mom take all of the pictures on Christmas morning so I don't have any of them right now. We slept over and had an amazing dinner and opened presents in the morning. Jayda still doesn't understand and was a bit overwhelmed by everything around her. Once we got the room cleaned up and gave her one toy to focus on she was happy. She got her very first baby doll and stroller from Grandma and an Old McDonald farmhouse that sings and spins around from Grandpa. Those were both the winners in the favorite toy category.

On New Year's Eve we went to a party at Tucano's in Salt Lake. They had dinner and dancing and we felt like two young people in love again and not just parents. It was great to hang out with such good friends and eat great food and have an excuse to get dressed up. I have always wanted to go to a dress up party on New Years. I love going to these types of restaurants with Bryce and hearing him speak in Portuguese and seeing his eyes light up. He really loves Brazil and the people.

Apparently I thought I was a rock star that night.

So, the reason I didn't have my camera on New Years Eve was because I left it at my aunt's house on Christmas day. My family thinks they are hilarious and decided to leave me a few presents on my camera. I was fully prepared for this to happen but I am not sure they knew I would post them on my blog. Ha Ha suckas! Now all of your embarrassing pics are out there for the world to see.

For your viewing pleasure......

One of these things is not like the other......

This one is getting blown up to billboard size and I am going to hang it in the hall of flags at UVU. (She works there)

This one will be on a posterboard outside of the U of U bookstore.

I am going to run the Highland Fling next year with this guy on my shirt.

What kind of a mother would support such monkey behavior?!

Not bad for a rookie!

I am pretty sure this is supposed to be an angry face. Cutest little guy ever.

This was just a sampling of the joy I found on my camera. I think that everyone who sees this should make fun of them and laugh at them.

Light parade

Friday night was Bountiful City's light parade. We were out running errands and on our way home we ran right into the floats waiting to start the parade so we decided to stop and check it out. It was short and sweet and actually a lot of fun. They threw out candy and had music and Santa was at the end waving to everyone.
K-notice Jayda's face in all of these pictures. She was ready for bed and also very confused. She has the exact same expression in all of them. At the end when Santa came out she cracked a smile for us but unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that. She likes Santa already because at Lowe's they have blow up Christmas displays and one of them has Santa peaking in and out of a door. She could sit and watch it for hours.
We are really glad we decided to stop and get the Christmas festivities started. It's going to be a fun month.

1 year anniversary

On this day last year we were moving into our new home. It doesn't feel like it has been that long, but time seems to go by more quickly when you have a little one.

Jayda will be 16 months old on Sunday and I am happy to say she had her last little checkup and set of shots until she goes to kindergarten. YEAH!!!
She weighs 22.0 pounds- 31%
Height: 31 inches-60%
Head:17.9 inches-34%

Luckily the weather wasn't too horrible and we were able to make it up to Idaho for Thanksgiving to visit Jayda's cousins and her papa Schow.We had a blast and ate amazing food. Our only regret is that we didn't get to stay longer. Bryce had to work the Jazz game on Friday so we skipped the Black Friday madness and came home early that morning.

This was Jayda about 30 minutes after we arrived. She walked straight up to Gus and started laughing. There is no fear with her when it comes to big dogs. She even squeezed through the slats to get to him.
Aunt Londi did her hair for her on Thanksgiving morning, complete with glitter and curls.

The temperature was a brisk 2 degrees but we didn't let that stop us from getting out on the 4-wheeler and sledding. How cool is it that they can just go sledding on their street?!

My apologies

I wish I could send a personal apology to all of the people who were at the Smiths in Bountiful on Wednesday night.
I was there doing a little grocery shopping and decided that I needed a little chocolate. So I grabbed a Snickers and put it in the cart. Well, Jayda decided that she needed a little chocolate too and started squealing and reaching her hands out for it. I handed it to her thinking that holding it would be good enough, but no. When she couldn't get the wrapper open she started squealing again and tried to get me to open it for her.
Now Jayda has had chocolate, but I am not about to feed her a Snickers so I put it back in the cart. This set her off. She proceeded to scream the whole time we were checking out and all the way out of the store. This was not a scream I had ever heard from her before. It was like I had taken a chain saw and chopped off one of her arms. The cashier behind me kindly offered me a sticker to see if that would help and it did, for about two seconds while she looked at it, scowled and then decided that she was even more mad now. I couldn't look at anyone. I just kept my head down and walked out of there as fast as I could.
Maybe that is my sign that I need to stop eating chocolate.
So, have we spoiled our child so much that we have created a monster? Are we raising the beginnings of a spoiled brat? Or is this just a phase? She's testing the waters, finding her voice? I guess we will find out, but I can't say that I will be going back to Smiths anytime soon and I am definitely not buying any candy bars either!

October

Halloween isn't really our holiday, but we did a few things to celebrate. My favorite thing was going to the pumpkin patch in South Jordan with the Morgans. Our little girls didn't understand the concept but they sure had fun! These two are already becoming good friends which I am super happy about.

This is Jayda's little pumpkin she picked out. It was too heavy for her to carry, but she knew which one she wanted. She has been sitting on the floor at home holding it and saying "ball" for the past few weeks.

Looks like she wants to take after her mama and be a tractor driver. That was my first job when I was 14. I was a sod mower and I loved it. I bet Bryce never thought his wife had a little country in her. Ha!

We took a little hay ride around the field a few times, but it made Jayda uneasy. She needs to hang out with Melia more often cause that girl was loving it! Maybe she can teach Jayda to toughen up a bit.

This was Jayda's Halloween "costume" this year. We are party poopers and figured that she has no clue what Halloween is so we just bought her some glow-in-the dark pj's. This actually turned out to be a smart decision because she started throwing up Sunday night and has been sick for over a week. She passed it on to me, then Landon, then my dad and then my mom. So we skipped out on any carnivals or festivities.

Here she is trying to be a good sport after one of her thousands of baths this week. We did a bajillion loads of laundry, it was crazy. That's right, I said bajillion!

One milestone we have had at 15 months is Jayda feeding herself with a spoon. It was amazing to watch her get it right the first time we tried. She's a genious I tell ya ;)

14 Months

I am amazed that we were able to get so many cute pictures of Jayda. She was super ornery and clingy during her photo shoots (he let us try on two different days even though he was doing the photo shoot for free and both days were rough). Greg at GSK Design was the nicest guy I have ever met. He was so cute and patient with her. It takes a lot of talent to get such great pictures with so little smiles to work with. We are so grateful that we got to meet Greg and will definitely be working with him again. Go to www.GSKDesign.com to check him out!

I'm in love

Tonight I am in love with......
1. President MonsonThis Saturday at the Relief Society broadcast I fell in love with our prophet for the first time. I absolutely loved President Hinckley. He was pretty much the only prophet I have known so when President Monson was ordained I was happy and I knew he was called of God, but for some reason I have just been in "like" with him. His talk on Saturday really touched me. He told a story about a woman who was complaining about how her neighbors laundry was never clean but in the end it was her own window that she was looking through that was dirty. He has an adorable sense of humor and I am extremely grateful that I went to that conference and had the opportunity to feel the spirit so strongly.

2. The paramedic I met at Papa Murphy's tonight

I was getting dinner for a lady in my ward who just had a baby because I didn't have enough time to make her anything and I had Jayda in one arm and my wallet and keys in my other arm so there was no way I was going to be able to carry everything out. I asked the lady at the counter if I could just leave part of my order there and come back and get it. The paramedic who was behind me asked if he could help me carry everything out. He was so sweet he even opened the door for me. Thank you didn't seem good enough.

3. Target

I had a bit of a rough day at work today and decided to spend some time with Jayda at Target. I was able to find some awesome deals which always makes me very happy! Ask Bryce about when he called me tonight. I barely let him get two words in because I was so excited to tell him about everything I got and what a good deal I got it for. :)