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. :)

The beginnings of September

There are a few things that have happened lately that I definitely want to write about so I don't forget.

This is a picture Bryce took while I was at work. Jayda did this on a daily basis for a few weeks. Sometimes it was multiple times. Most of the time we thought it was so cute that we would just let her do it. She would also take the Q-tips and put them in-between her toes and then curl them up so the Q-tips would stay there. I am not quite sure where she got this from but she also started doing it with bobby pins, nail files, pretty much anything that would go in-between her toes.
Makelle took me on a date to the John Mayer concert. I had such a good time hanging out with her and the concert was a blast too. Unfortunately I am 99% sure John was wasted the whole concert so I think it could have been a little better but his ramblings were pretty entertaining. You know when someone just walks off stage and then comes back about 5 minutes later and announces that he had to pee, they weren't just drinking water.
Hopefully this is the start of a monthly GNO for us.

Scott and Brittney invited us to fly out to Wendover with them which may have been the scariest thing I have ever done. I wanted to make a will before we left but didn't get around to it. I have to give it to Scott though, he is an excellent pilot and there was no need to worry. His landings were better than any commercial plane I have ever been on.

We were able to fly over the B, the temple, downtown and even our house on the way out.

Last month I got this chair at a garage sale for a dollar so I painted it up and put it in Jayda's room. I am surprised with how much she loves it. It is the perfect size for her and she loves to climb up on it and just hang out.

This is her after I put her to bed one night. I took the picture in the dark but on the night setting it looks like it is in daylight. It's amazing what my camera can do when I use the right settings. :) I just thought she looked so cute sleeping sideways with her hair sticking straight up.

Jayda loves to play on the counter while I get ready. She keeps herself entertained by sucking on our toothbrushes (gross, I know), playing with the little candles in glass jars (don't worry, they seem to be pretty sturdy) and taking my makeup brushes and tickling her face with them.

This past weekend we were able to go up to Bear Lake with Heather, Mike, Shantaye, Mike and Dave and Megan came up a little later. It was really fun to watch our three babies play around and see how different they all are. One thing I love about Melia is well, she's stinking adorable, but that she is really independent. She is totally content just crawling around, playing with toys. It seems like she is always happy. One thing I love about Crue is how excited he is about trying to walk and watching people play miniature golf. When he is excited about something you know it and he has a smile that will melt your heart!

Unfortunately I wasn't great about having my camera handy so I am hoping Heather and Shantaye will send me a few that they took. Wink Wink

Jayda has mastered going up and down the stairs which I love. I don't have to be quite so nervous anymore.

We brought up her Bumbo and it was like a long lost friend. We haven't used it for a few months so she spent plenty of time climbing in and chilling.

Swinging was definitely her favorite. I think we let her swing for half an hour one morning and she still wasn't ready to get out.

She has also started walking a little bit. She can stand up and start walking by herself but she doesn't seem to want it. When she is distracted she is better at it, but is content to crawl right now. Hopefully soon she will be on her feet, then I get to buy her some cute shoes!