Friday, January 13, 2012

Keepin' Busy

Here's what I do to keep myself entertained while Mikayla plays outside...
I take a million pictures of her.  That shouldn't surprise anyone, though...

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

MORE, MORE!!!

We took Mikayla to the zoo on Monday and that's about all we heard-MORE, MORE!!!  She loved the zoo, which was way fun for us.  She liked all the smaller animals, but hated the big ones.  She freaked out whenever she would see the elephants, giraffes, or the rhino and scream "no, no, no!" until we walked away.  We're gonna have to figure out how to toughen her up.
Her favorite animal?  The anteater.  She would get so stressed when it would go out of sight and say "all gone! uh-oh!", then "MORE, MORE!"  Of all things to fall in love with!
"There it is!"
This lazy leopard kind of made me happy. :)
For some reason, I love this picture.  Mikayla was enthralled with the otters playing in the water and kept pushing her face up against the mesh, which is what I was trying to capture, but I like this almost as much.

Some days it makes me sad Mikayla is growing up so fast, but then times like Monday at the zoo when she is so alive and fun it makes me so happy to watch her grow up and discover the world.  It helps me remember how fun life is!

And a Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve our style and it was just perfect-a day with family.

That morning Dustin took Mikayla outside to build a fort.  It was quite the to-do, although Dustin said it was shameful and was just a practice run.  Mikayla surprised us greatly and loved it.  That's all that matters.
He declared several things after this fort building experience: all forts need a flag (see about tree post and the small orange flag at the bottom of the post that didn't hold up to expectations), dirt mounds are for digging tunnels (apparently everyone but me knew that already), and he would be raiding the construction trash bins for better scraps of wood for the next fort because this one just wasn't big enough for two.
Dustin also assisted Mikayla with putting all her dress-ups on-at one time.  I'm pretty convinced life would be a lot happier with Dads home a little more often.  Too bad someone's gotta make a living for us!
For dinner we went fancy and Dustin cooked us some filet mignons (Is it shameful that I didn't know what that was when Dustin asked me if that sounded good for our party and that I had to Google how to spell it for this post?  Yes.  Shameful.).  They were delish-especially for one who'd never had one before. :)
Mikayla thought she was on cloud 9 because she got "bip-bip" (dip dip-sour cream) with her dinner.  She kept begging for more and after she finally came to the realization that she wasn't going to get more she went to town licking the leftovers off her plate.  We laughed and laughed as we watched her tongue lick the sour cream off that see though plate.
We ended our evening with sparklers, dessert and games.  The perfect day with the 3 of us (even though I didn't show up in any pictures I promise I was there!).

Friday, December 30, 2011

Highlights of Christmas

Christmas this year was one of the best yet.  Not only was Mikayla old enough to take part in the festivities, but Uncle Seth was home from his mission and the whole family was together.  We made so many fun memories, but to me the best part was taking in every moment with the ones I love.

There were so many fun moments over the weekend that I had a hard time narrowing them down so I'm including a bunch of pictures, but I'll try to limit the words to make up for it. :)

A pre-Christmas walk-just because I love the picture.
Our little "angel" for the nativity at our family Christmas Eve party.  She probably should have picked a play where she could've been the part of the devil instead.  She was such a GRUMP that day.
The nativity cast that has gotten WAY smaller over the years!
Our tradition on Christmas Eve is to open our family gift exchange gift.  The boys are sitting behind the dominoes tabletop that Dustin made for Seth.  Seth loves dominoes after serving in the Dominican Republic.
A close-up of the pretty tabletop that Dustin made.
Mikayla was the official present rearranger.  The boys made her a fort out the presents and she could've stayed in there all night long sorting boxes.
Seth and Jake had Dustin and Dad and they made them these little kid picnic tables.  We were pretty impressed. :)
Christmas morning Dustin and I woke up at the crack of dawn and waited FOREVER for Mikayla to wake up so we could get everyone else up.  I love her bedhead.
When she saw all the presents she got so excited!  She was mostly excited to continue her rearranging process from the night before. :)
Santa brought Mikayla a play kitchen.  He enlisted her Dad for help in completing the project.  Seriously-take a closer look at her hair in the picture below. :)
Santa's helper with the completed kitchen...
I love it!  He did such a good job!
Dustin surprised me with a trip to Nauvoo for our 5th anniversary.  I have been dying to go back since I lived there for a semester.  I couldn't believe it!
We could've just given Mikayla tissue paper and she would've been the happiest girl ever.  This is one of the few pictures I got of Nanny Jill...sad day. :(  She'll be grateful, though.  We talked her into staying in her jammies which is totally not her thing. :)
For Dustin's present I enlarged pictures from when Dustin and his parents went on safari and put them on canvases to hang in our room.
Grandad got manly man flashlights with their own carrying case and everything.
Auntie Maren got fancy new boots from Uncle Jake and Uncle Jake was sporting his usual dark socks and shorts attire for quite the lovely combination.
My hubby loving every minute of Christmas.
Mikayla spent all morning trying to talk anyone and everyone into sitting by her on the presents.
Dustin got a big Christmas/early birthday present-a lathe (spelling?) and some tools from a stellar yard sale.  Seth got a bow for his violin and was so stoked he couldn't part with his violin-see him standing on the driveway?
The big girls and the little gal all got matching boots from Grandad and Nanny Jill.  They're brown with pink tops.  SO cute!
As usual, Dustin sported his own style...(This one's for you Deja, DawnSheree, and DeeDee!)
Off to church-Jake and Seth with their matching red pants that Seth had made in the DR.
This is the best picture I got of Mikayla, but she got this adorable purse from the Susa family and loves it.
After church Dustin put together Mikayla's tool bench from Grandad and Nanny Jill.  For some reason, Mikayla thought the drill was the most hilarious thing in the world and would bust up laughing every time she turned it on.  We're talking slapping her legs and falling into Dustin because she was laughing so hard.  It made us laugh pretty hard-hence the 2 pictures and a video to go along with them. :)
Phew...I think that just about sums up our day.  Christmas evening extended family and friends came over to chat and watch a movie.  It was a good day.

We have so much to be grateful for, especially the tradition of a righteous family.  We have many examples of stalwart ancestors that we can honor by carrying on their legacy.  I am grateful for Christmas and the chance that it gave me to reflect on what is important and to realize that through Christ we have the opportunity to be with family forever.  What greater blessing can there be?

What a happy happy day!



Sunday, December 25, 2011

All I want for Christmas is...

A little bro or sis!
Check!
Coming June 2012

Merry Christmas!!!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Things of importance...

...like burps, secrets, cake batter, and being cute.

I fully recognize that not everyone enjoys 100 pictures or videos of other people's kids, but I also happen to know that Mikayla's grandparents think she's as cute as I do so I can justify posting a million videos of her for them, right?  She just does so many cute things right now that I wanted to remember some of them...

Her new favorite word-BURP!
Telling a secret...if you can't hear what she's saying that's because it's a SECRET!!!
The "beek" at the end is her version of "peek-a-boo".
We love licking the beater!  Don't judge me for the chocolate chips (her favorite treat) and giving her the beater.  It's Christmas.   I love when she says "yeah".  It's such a better alternative than NO to everything! 
Clean up!  And the best little "cute" poser ever!
Thank goodness for a booster seat to keep her still for the videos! ;)
Not her best rendition, but every time you say "crazy" or "silly" or "weird"...anything that means something along those lines Mikayla says "willy willy" for "silly willy".