October

It has been a LONG time since I have posted! We are just too busy around here to be able to blog on a regular basis. Kaiya is 20 months now and SO much fun! I will have to do a post about her milestones soon. She has the vocabulary of a 5 year old, I swear. She has been saying over 100 words on a regular basis since 18 months. I love that I can talk to her like an adult and she knows exactly what I am saying. She loves Toy Story and Tangled and has recently gotten into Cinderella. I can't wait to take her to Disneyland! She is going to love it! I'm trying to talk Nate into going soon, but he said we have wait until he is done with school and has a job. He is done in April with his masters in Athletic Training! I can't wait!! I love my job at Mckay Dee working on the pediatric floor, but I look forward to being able to cut back my hours when Nate graduates. Working 3 graveyards a week is just not fun with a toddler who wakes up 2 hours after you fall asleep after getting home from work. I'm grateful however that one of us is always able to be with her and we don't have to put her in daycare. Tonight we were able to do some fun things with her. October is my favorite month. It is my birthday month and I also just love the weather and Halloween is my favorite holiday! Here are a few pictures of what we did tonight.

Kaiya LOVES to have her toenails painted

 She didn't quite know what to think about the jigglers

 Making cookies!

 Cheese!

 She is OBSESSED with Minnie Mouse

 Finished Product!

 Minnie

 Cinderella

 She loved them!

Happy Halloween!

Kaiya Updates

(Kaiya, say "cheese")


Kaiya will be 11 months in just a few days! She is so smart. I am amazed everyday at the things she learns. She is a little copy cat. Everything we do, so repeats. She is being stubborn with walking. She has been pulling herself up on things since the first week in October and has been walking with a little sit to stand walker for a month now, but she refuses to stand by herself. She is definitely my child in the way that she does things on her own terms. It drives Nate crazy. She loves to eat and will eat pretty much anything we do. I'm so ready for her to turn one so she doesn't have food restrictions anymore. I'm also SO ready for her to not be on formula anymore!! She loves her sippy cup. Last month we were out at a restaurant and she kept trying to get my drink. We had never given her a straw before so I didn't think she would be able to get anything out. I let her try and she instantly sucked up my Dr Pepper. It was so cute. She is now obsessed with drinking out of a straw. I bought her a new sippy that has a straw. She thinks it is fantastic. She is our little hoover. She loves to find things on the floor and put them in her mouth. We are always pulling things out of her little mouth. She has 8 teeth and she's not afraid to use them. She bites us all the time. Our toes are her favorite thing to attack. She also likes to bite my fingers. Cardboard and paper are her favorite things to eat. Christmas was like heaven to her. wrapping paper and cardboard boxes everywhere! She couldn't have cared less about her new toys. Here is a list of her favorite words to say:
Da-da
Nah-nah (mama)
Doggy
No no no (shaking her head left to right)
Ni Ni (in a high pitched voice) (night night)
baby
bye bye- she won't say it, she'll just wave when you say bye bye
Hi Hi (same as bye bye she just waves)
Uh- oh
That's all I can think of right now. She is such a fun little person to have around. I swear she gets cuter and funnier everyday. I don't remember life without her and I don't want to. She has made us so happy.We were for sure blessed with a happy and good natured baby. We have been so spoiled and eased into parenthood. I'm scared to have anymore. She is such a good baby that I just know our next one will be naughty!!

Yuba Lake

This year for Labor Day we went to Yuba Lake with Nate's family. It was fun to get out of the house and sleep under the stars. Nate's dad always makes the best food when we go camping. They spend so much time making sure our trips are perfect and they always are. Kaiya had fun too. She loves to be outside and play in the sand and water. She did really well sleeping too even without her bed and bedtime routine.


Nate on the waverunner

Sunday we took a drive to the Manti temple to relax and enjoy the day
Chillin by the campfire
She loves to sit and play with toys
of course stunting was involved in the weekend.
relaxin with daddy
happy happy girl. Don't mind that I'm not wearing make-up in any of these pictures...
I LOVE this picture. She looks like such a big girl!
We were parked waiting to get our campsite and Kaiya had had it with her carseat. So we got her out and put her in the front seat. Nate thought it would be funny to put her in the bumbo in the front seat and seatbelt her in. He then wanted to give her our trip snacks and take a picture to make it look like she "called shot gun" and was ridin in the front eatin snacks. It was cute.
Such a happy girl!!

Utah State Fair 2011

My dad is one of the directors over Utah's Own. Every year at the state fair my dad heads up the Utah's Own food court where all Utah companies come and set up their booths to sell food. There are some awesome companies there this year so if you go to the fair, make sure you check it out. I had the Ribs from Richard's BBQ booth and it was FANTASTIC. Kaiya loved the fair of course. However, mother of the year right here forgot her stroller so Nate and I had to carry her the whole time. Not fun. She likes to be free to move around and look around and being held was not allowing her to do that. It was still fun though.




I'm pretty sure this is our only family photo...
Kaiya and Bampa
She got sleepy and fell asleep on Nate's shoulder
Man I love these two!
She is such a cheeser!

What we have been up to lately!

Kaiya is now 5 months old. She is growing up so fast. She is hitting all her milestone and loving every minute of becoming a big girl. She will no longer lay on her back. The second we put her down, she rolls over to her tummy and then gets bored because she can't go anywhere, so she will then roll back over to her back and play with her toys for a minute before the cycle starts over. She's trying to master sitting up by herself, but being the Kaiya we all know and love, she just wants to be standing all the time and gets frustrated with sitting. She started eating solid food and has had squash, sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, and apples. She is not particularly fond of the peas and apples, but loves everything else. She is doing really well with it.
Nate and Kaiya have daddy daughter nights 3 nights a week while I am at work. I hate that I have to work full time, but I love that I have a job that allows me to work at night so Nate can be with her and then I can come home and be with her during the day. We have been super blessed in this department. I always told Nate that we wouldn't have kids until we knew one of us would always be able to be with her when the other person was away. Kaiya loves her daddy and I love that I don't have to worry about her for a minute while I'm at work. I love that they are able to bond and spend that quality time together.
Nate has been so amazing these last couple weeks. I have been working a lot and it has really taken a toll on my body since I come home from working a graveyard and he has to leave shortly after I get home and Kaiya wakes up almost the second I walk in the door. I feel like I am always tired and trying to catch up. Nate has totally stepped up and helped me so much with the house. He is Mr Mom lately. The laundry is always done, he makes dinner when I can't and he cleans up the house all the time. I feel like such a slacker, but he has really helped ease the stress of having to work full time. I was cracking up the other night when I realized what I have turned my husband into... He is the best daddy in the world. He was nervous before Kaiya was born that he wasn't going to know how to interact with a baby. He has been such a natural! He never stops amazing me. I have grown up around babies most of my life. I have developed a language over these years that I use when I talk to babies and it has continued with my own daughter. I have rubbed off on my husband... Words like tubbie, dipe (for diaper) bink, binkers, ba (for bottle) blankie have crept into his vocabulary. I'm sure there are more words that we use regularly that I just can't think of at this time. I think it is so cute. He is such an amazing person. I don't know how I lucked out and got him for my husband and father of my child.
Here are a few pictures and videos of what we have been up to lately!
Kaiya was so tired this night. She never cries in the tubbie and she was screaming the whole time. After her bath Nate was determined to make her smile... The video below was the result... Oh the things we do to make our kids happy!






Kaiya and daddy doing what they do best. She's so proud of herself!


Kaiya's new toy
Kaiya's first time at the drive in! She loved it!!
Eating squash


Happy baby! Going swimming!
Standing up in her pretty dress.

Kaiya Updates...

She LOVES her daddy. She thinks he's very funny.

Don't worry--- the burners by her were not hot... and I never left her side. My mom gave me crap for putting her in her bumbo on the counter.



She loves tubby time


Our little baby is growing up so fast! I hate it, but love it at the same time. Each phase is so fun! Few things for documentation. She started giggling on May 14th, which happened to be her three month mark. She giggled out loud for my mom, who thought she had giggled before. I walked into the room and heard her and freaked out calling Nate into the room, scaring Kaiya to death. It was the cutest thing ever! Us being the proud first time parents whipped out our camera and got it documented before she decided she was too tired to giggle anymore. She still has not giggled like that again for Nate and I. Just courtesy giggles. She also rolled over last Tuesday, May 24. Nate was putting lotion on her back and had her on her belly. She rolled over to her tummy and his first reaction was, "you little stinker-- stop wiggling." Then he quickly realized what had just happened and again scared Kaiya by yelling for me to get in the room to see it. Of course she wouldn't do it again for me. She did it twice on Sunday at my parents house proving it really happened. haha. She hates tummy time so as soon as she can get back to her back the better in her eyes. She has always been so alert and aware of her surroundings but everyday she continues to amaze me. She is so smart. Her coordination is amazing. She can see something she wants, reach for it and get it. she loves her toys above her car seat. I swear she gets cuter every day. She has been sitting in her bumbo since she was 2 months old and loves to sit up like a big girl and help mommy do chores around the house. She loves doing laundry with me and cooking dinner with me. She had rice cereal for the first time at 3 and a half months (coming in the next post...) She is such a good baby. She sleeps through the night and takes awesome naps during the day. I find it very hard to put her down because she is so dang cute!!

A graduation and a blessing

We had a very eventful week this week! Nate graduated from BYU with his bachelors of Science with an emphasis in Exercise and Wellness. It was a great day! We have been waiting for this day for a long time! Now on to grad school in 3 weeks. We move to Ogden in less than a week. We're excited for the change, but not the moving part!





We also blessed Kaiya today. It was beautiful. Nate did such a good job. Kaiya was perfect! She loved looking around at the men in her life that love her so much. She didn't make a peep even though she was awake for the whole prayer! She had a fun party with my side of the family and loved spending time with her cousins!


Kaiya and her friend Brooklyn who is exactly one week younger.

This baby loves the camera. I pulled it out to take a picture and she instantly smiled without any encouragement from me or anyone else. She is such a freaking cute kid!