2 Months Old

WOW!! What a cutie!! These pictures were taken on July 22. Jayla was 9 weeks old. Now she talks more than ever and squeals when she gets excited. She smiles all day long. Some of her skills include: following mom and dad around the room, turning her head towards different noises, holding her head up for minutes at a time, and pulling mom's hair. She loves to talk and to be talked to. She loves her swing, music, moving her legs, and bath time.

Pioneer Day

This couple is Lincoln and Yvonne. Lincoln is Kristen's brother. We celebrated pioneer day with them and their two kids, Vanessa and Wesley. Cindy, Kristen's mom, bought a whole bunch of fire works for the little kids to watch. The neighborhood then spends thousands of dollars to put on a firework show that, in our opinion, is just as good, if not better, than the stadium of fire.



Jayla wasn't scared at all. Although we watched the festivities from a distance (to protect her poor ears) she would smile at the end of each firework display. It was so funny! She loved the fireworks and she wasn't scared at all.



This is Wesley hiding in the house. He was afraid of the fireworks where as his little sister kept trying to escape to get a closer look at the fireworks.


Vanessa kept petting Jayla softly on the forehead. Most little kids aren't that gentle with babies, but Vanessa was very careful and soft with Jayla. That is just her sweet personality. Vanessa accidentally pulled Jayla's bow off of her head and then kept trying to stick it back on. We can't wait until Jayla is old enough to play with her.


Michael is multitasking by pushing Vanessa in the swing and playing catch with Lincoln and Wesley. Some how all of the little kids always want Michael to push them in the swings and nobody else.

Sunday

This is our family after our church meetings. We thought that we would get a couple of family shots since we were all dressed up and Jayla looked so cute!!

1 Month Old

These are Jayla's 1 month pictures. My friend Kella made the shirt for her on her computer. This way we can take her picture every month to see how she is changing and growing. She was really smiley that morning when I took these pictures (June 25th). She usually is a morning person and is usually really happy and playful in the mornings. This is how she used to smile. Now she can do a full on grin.


This picture was taken that same morning. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. She is wearing a beautiful dress that her sweet birth mom had given her and she looks so cute in it with her half smile!!

Jayla Slideshow

Miniature Golfing

This is John and Lora, two of our closest friends. Lora just e-mailed these pictures to us, so we thought that we would add them to our blog. These pictures were taken only weeks before we got Jayla. It is amazing trying to remember what life was like before we got Jayla. Even though it has only been a couple of months we can't imagine our lives without her now.




Here I am trying to make a hole in one to catch up to Michael. This was the only time that Michael was able to beat me at miniature golf. He got 4 holes in one!! I just think that he finally got lucky.

Jared and Jessica's Wedding

When Jayla was two and half weeks old we took her to her first wedding. Michael's brother got married in the temple in southern Utah. All of the little girls had matching yellow dresses. They are so cute!!! Jayla is the one on the right.

Michael's parents were so excited that they were going to get a picture of all of their grandkids. Don't they look like they are in heaven! The other 4 kids belong to Dane, Michael's brother, and his wife Mariam. Their names are (starting from the left) Nolan, Sam, Tacey, and Sally. Jalya is the baby in the middle.

This is Jayla with her cousin Sally. Sally is about 2 months older than Jayla in this picture. Jalya is almost bigger than Sally. It was so funny they both kept wiggling so much when we were trying to take this picture it took 5 different times and 3 different people to get this shot.

This is Jared and Jessica. We told them that they needed to practice being parents. Perhaps it is a sign of the not too distant future. We all told them that this means that they are going to have twins.
This is Nolan, Michael's dad. He was trying to get some sleep. When all the kids come home to visit no matter how hard he tries, someone has to wake him up to talk to him. This time it was Michael.

Ahhhh...Brian and Jamie decided to join the traditional dog pile on Nolan. It wouldn't be a family gathering without it. The huge guy laying on top is Brian (you don't want to mess with him, he would eat you alive) and the cute blonde is Jamie, Micheal's brother and sister. Michael's family is the most "huggy" family in the world! Nobody can leave without being hugged by every single person at least once. I tried to sneak out once without hugging anyone just for kicks and giggles....I ended up getting hunted down and given triple the hugs and squeezes.

Daddy's Girl

What a daddy's girl!! Her daddy can't get enough of her. Michael hates going to work because he has to leave Jayla. The first thing he does when he comes home is to hold Jayla and kiss her all over. Whenever Michael dresses Jayla, he always puts her in this onsie that says, "Daddy's Girl." It is his favorite outfit obviously. I have to admit that for the first couple of weeks she would only smile for Michael so I guess it is true that she is a daddy's girl already.

The First Couple of Weeks

These are pictures of Jayla from the first couple of weeks.
Her cheeks were already starting to get chubbier.

She loves scratching her own face... hence the socks on her hands.

The dress she is wearing above was the dress that I wore when I was born. Sadly to say that she didn't really fit into it since she was one and a half pounds bigger than me when I was born, but I had to try it out anyway. I think she looks adorable of course.

Our Garden

This is our apricot tree. It is the only fruit tree this year that is producing any fruit so far. The cherry tree did not produce anything at all. The apple tree has been doing well, but the apples aren't ripe yet.



The garden is Michael's pride and joy. He has to go out and look at it at least once a day to see how much it has grown since yesterday. I get the fun task of watering it. Our zucchini and yellow squash seem to be taking over the garden and they even came from seeds. Next year we won't plant as many. The tomatoes are taking their sweet time in ripening. I can't wait until I get to have a tomato sandwich. Yummy!

Bathtime

This princess robe was given to Jayla by her sweet birthmom. Doesn't she look like a princess!!

She loved her bath time the minute she got in. She only gets upset when we have to take her out. She would spend the whole day in the tub if we would let her.

Doesn't she look content!! This was our first time bathing Jayla back on May 29th. She loved it. She kept trying to suck on the wet blanket and she kept trying to drink the water. We had to keep a close eye on the girl.

Michael can't get enough of his little girl. He is always kissing her little face off. I have to admit I think sometimes Jayla gets sick of all of the kisses.

Our New Addition

This is us at the hospital picking up Jayla. If it looks like our noses and our eyes are a little red it is because it was quite the emotional day. We were both so extremely happy to get the opportunity to adopt a little girl, but at the same time our hearts went out to Jayla's birth mother and her family. It was obvious that day the love that they all have for Jayla and continue to have for her. We have grown to love them with all our hearts. They are amazing and we will be forever grateful for them.


Isn't she so cute!! She is only a couple of days old in this picture. She doesn't even fit in that outfit anymore. She has gotten so big.


Kristen's parents were so ecstatic to finally hold Jayla. They come to see her at least four times a week. They can't get enough of the little thing.

This is Kristen's brother and his wife Andrea. They drove all the way up from Sigurd to see the baby.
These are Kristen's grandparents. Grandma was way excited to hold baby Jayla. She loves her great grandchildren.

This is Michael's family, at least all of the ones that are still living at home. They all were fighting over who got to hold Jayla first. Even the boys were complaining that they didn't get to hold her long enough.

This is Michael's sister Deanne. She loves to hold baby Jayla.

Wow where to begin. The saying "time flies when you are having fun" is so true. Well, our sweet Jayla Mae was born on May 23rd. She got to spend two days with her incredible birth family before we took her home on May 25th. It was love at first sight. We couldn't believe that we would get to raise such a beautiful little baby girl!! Who would have thought it would be this much fun! We have been incredibly blessed. There is nothing that we want more than to be able to raise a family in the gospel. We couldn't be happier.


This was the day that we brought her home from the hospital. We had to show her off to Michael's family before taking her to our home and trust us those smiles are not posed.