Kyla's Birthday

Today is our dear sweetheart Kyla's birthday.  I can't believe that she has just turned 2!  I can't help but think of the labor and delivery to get her into this world and then the first 2 quick years that we've been able to spend with her.  She's growing up to be such an amazing little girl.  She's so smart, kind, compassionate, and loving.  There's been a lot of learning as parents these 2 years and I know that the learning will only keep going as she grows up and learns more as well.  I am so blessed and grateful to be a mother of this beautiful angel.  Happy Birthday Kyla!  We love you!

Kyla a few hours old

 

  

Kyla now! The new 2 year old eating her cupcake! :)

Kyla had an Elmo Party so I made these Elmo cupcakes.  They turned out pretty cute!

Some of the decorations

Here's the birthday invitations I made.  The nose is a pom pom, the eyes and mouth is from cardstock and the mouth is made out of felt.  They turned out better than I thought they would.

Kyla opening some of her gifts

Our family!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!  It was filled with love, fun surprises, giving, and most importantly remembering the true meaning of Christmas....our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am so glad for this time of year so I can remember Christ and all of his love and sacrifice he has made for every person in this world.  I also love this time of year because it reminds me that I need to remember Christ through out the whole year and not just during Christmas time.  I am so grateful for my Savior and all he has done for me.  I hope this next year we can all remember our Savior a little better through out the year.

Here are some of the events that took place on Christmas Day!

We stayed home for Christmas morning so Santa could come to our house this year.  After Santa left we took a picture of all the wonderful things he left under the brightly lit tree!

 

 We sure got spoiled this year!

 

Our Stockings

Kyla with all of her toys(there's some below the couch too but I couldn't get them in the picture)!!

 

Kyla woke up around 7am.  We kept her in our room for a few minute while Hyrum went to get the video camera and to check on "Santa."  Whild Kyla and I were in the bedroom, we heard a knock at the door and then Hyrum answered it and heard, "HO HO HO!  Merry Christmas!"  Hyrum said, "Santa!  Merry Christmas.  Thanks for all the stuff you left us!"  Santa: "You're welcome!  Merry Christmas!"  Then the door shut. (If you didn't catch on, Hyrum was pretending Santa came so Kyla could hear.)  She got sooo excited!  Then Hyrum came in the bedroom with the video camera and we all went out to see the gifts Santa brought!  We opened our stockings first, divided the gifts up and Kyla went at it!  She had so much fun and is quite a pro at opening gifts.  We left the ones from Santa for last.  She got a Buzz Lightyear and a Woody from Santa!  She couldn't have been happier.  The looks on her face were priceless.  

It's so interesting how your perspective changes about things once you become a parent.  I wanted to sacrifice all the money towards my gifts just so we could get Kyla what she wanted.  It's also interesting being a parent around christmas time because I didn't care what I got for Christmas and there's not as much exitement about yourself and what you're getting.  You're more excited about seeing the faces of children light up when they discover their Christmas presents!  It's a joy I never would havequite fully understood if I didn't have a kid.  It's wonderful and I wouldn't want it any other way.  I'm assuming the excitement and joy only gets better with more kids!

Kyla with her 2 favorite toys of the year...Woody and Buzz!

After unwrapping all of our gifts, we got Kyla ready for the day and were going to head over to Hyrum's families house for Christmas with them.  Unfortunately it snowed so much the night before and the roads were not plowed at all that we would have gotten stuck in our own parking lot and more than likely on the roads.  Hyrum's dad came to get us that morning with their 4 wheel drive and we eventually got there safe and sound!

Kyla opened her gifts from Grandma and Grandpa and loved having more to open of course. :)

All of us on Christmas at Hyrum's family's house. (Notice Kyla's wearing a cute new outfit she got from my mom for Christmas!)

We stayed over there most of the day, came home for Kyla's nap (and mine! although I was so excited the whole day I hardly slept at all) and went back over there for more fun.  We played lots of games, talked, ate and just had fun!  It was a wonderful day and one year I will never forget!  Thanks to everyone for all of their kindness and generosity to us this year.  We love you!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

Hyrum's family always has a Christmas party every year where they do lots of fun traditions.  We had the party on Christmas Eve.  One of the things they usually do is go sledding.  Kyla wasn't sure if she enjoyed it or not but she slid down the hill a couple times with Hyrum, once with her cousin Courtney, once with me and once by herself.  She liked playing in the snow the most I think.

All of us together

Hyrum and Kyla sledding down a hill

 

 All 3 of us

 

We also went carolling, ate lots of yummie food, did a Secret Santa type event (where we deliver presents to those who need it), did a Brother/Sister gift exchange, and opened one present from Mom and Dad...PJs!!  It was so much fun and we love getting to spend so much time with them. 

Half Way!

Today I have reached my Half Way through pregnancy mark!  I am 20 weeks along already and man, it has flown by!  The baby is now 10 inches long from head to toe about the length of a banana and weighs about 6 1/2 ounces.  We are extremely anxious to find out what we're having in a week from Monday.  Although we technically could have found out the gender about 2 weeks previously, we have to wait until the beginning of the year.  January 5th is the day!  If you haven't voted yet, hurry and put your votes in!  My belly is consistantly growing and the baby moves around like crazy.  I hope this last half will go just as quickly or quicker than the first!  Wish me luck!

Side note: This is my 100th post!!!!  Yay!  Go me! :)  I'm not doing anything cool like giveaways or 100 things about myself...sorry, hope you continue to read anyway!

One OTHER side note: I will be posting pictures VERY shortly (probably tomorrow) about our fabulous Christmas and Kyla's reactions....stay tuned!

Once there was a Snowman...

I posted in my last blog how we might go out and play in the snow since there is SOO much!  Well we did!  We're borrowing a snowsuit from Grandma since we didn't have one and we went outside and built a snowman.  Kyla had so much fun! 

 

We had a carrot for the nose and raisins for the eyes and buttons.  We later made another snowman that had carrots for the ears and nose and raisins for the eyes....Kyla decided the look on that one! :)  

Fun Weekend!

WARNING:  THIS IS A BOOK!  Lots of pictures and lots of fun events happened....be ye warned!

We had a very eventful weekend! 2 of my Bestest friends, Bonnie and Karianne, from high school came up from Utah to visit for a couple days.  It was so fun to see and spend some time with them!  Bonnie's little girl is only 6 weeks younger than Kyla so they played together and became the bestest of friends!  We got lots of pictures of them together. 
We played games, talked, watched movies, had pizza, went shopping and bought the girls matching shirts!  It was so much fun to have so much girl time...I'm sure Hyrum felt outnumbered but he enjoyed visiting with them too!  Thanks for coming to visit girls!  You're the greatest and I love ya lots!
Here's pictures of our photo shoot:

 

  

  

  

My Best Friends and I

Along with visits, we got TONS of snow!  Last night it snowed probably about 4 inches alone!  Kyla and I will probably be going out to play in the snow today since we haven't yet this winter.

Saturday afternoon after the girls left, we got new couches from Hyrum's uncle!  He was giving them to us in return for Hyrum's computer service.  It's a matching couch and loveseat.  They're 20 years old but in amazing condition, very comfy, and it just makes our home look and feel more like home!  Our green couch is just wearing out, although it's still in pretty good condition too.  We're selling it on the BYU-I bulliten board for $50.  Right now we have it stored at Hyrum's work so if any of you are looking for a pretty good couch, I might even just give it to ya for pretty cheap or maybe even nothing at all just so we can get rid of it!   Just let me know.  Here's pictures of our newest home addition.

Hyrum and I also did some more Christmas shopping Saturday night.  Hyrum's mom and dad watched Kyla while we went out on our "date".  We're getting SOOO excited for Christmas and can't wait to see little Kyla's face light up when she sees what we got her!  You will all just have to wait and be surprised too when I post what she got! :)  Hyrum and I went out for ice cream at Coldstone with a gift card that we had afterwards.

The last event of the weekend was Hyrum's grandma's Christmas party.  There were TONS of people there and kids running around.  We ate dinner, visited, did a nativity play and program and opened gifts from Grandma. 

That's all for the weekend...now if only I can make some time to finish Christmas shopping for Hyrum, wrap all the presents, finish folding the laundry, send out our soon-to-be-late Christmas cards, and get ready for the day (Yeah I know...it's 10 am and I should be doing all this stuff before blogging, but I'm addicted and I'll admit it!), then I'll be all set and ready for Christmas.  There's only 3 days left you know...do you think I'll make it?  K..stop laughing at my procrastination, it doesn't happen too often you know!

Joke of the Day

I came across this last night.  After cleaning more than usual this week I figure I'm good....forever!  No more cleaning!  What's the point anyway?  If this is true, why even bother?  I'd rather waste my life away doing something else!  I'm going on a cleaning strike, anyone else with me? :)