Family Dinner

My family and I went out to dinner to celebrate the good news of Jayla's adoption being finalized and after her big day at the temple. We had a lot of fun. All of the little kids kept wanting to play with Jayla. It was like they all knew what took place that day. It was a lot of fun.

Sealing and Blessing Day

We couldn't believe that this day was finally here. It seemed like the weeks were going by so slow. We couldn't wait to be able to take Jayla to the temple and I was anxious to have Michael bless Jayla. Jayla was really cute during the whole thing. We could all hear her coming down the hall. She is always making little Jayla noises. She even burped right in the middle of the whole thing making everyone laugh.

I can't believe it, this time last year we were both so devastated. We had just learned the bad news. The holidays were not very enjoyable for us both. This year we have our sweet little Jayla and we can't imagine what things would be like without her. She is our world now. She has made us so much happier than we ever dreamed. We are so grateful that we are able to be a family for all eternity. We are so grateful for the love that God has for each of his children. There is no doubt in our minds that Jayla was supposed to be in our family. We love her more than we ever thought possible.

Kristen's Family

Michael's Family

This is a picture of all of Jayla's cousins on both sides of the family. We had to get a picture of all those cute kids!

This is Aunt Diane. Thanks to her we have all of these really awsome pictures!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we spent with Michael's family. They were all able to come up here, so that they could attend Jayla's sealing. We actually all slept over at MarJeane's house, Sharon's sister. I had so much fun taking pictures of all of the little kids. Aunt Diane got a really good one of Sally trying to kiss Jayla. We had Aunt Diane also take a couple of family shots for us. She really does a good job. I always love the pictures that she takes. There are a couple of pictures of Brian terrorizing the all the little as usual. They always have a lot of fun with him. Thanksgiving dinner of course was fabulous with the all the expert aunts around helping to cook, and what would Thanksgiving be without pomegrantinte salad.

Anyway, it is a tradition of Michael's family to get up before the sun to go shopping on black Friday. I am just barely recovering from it! Yes we fought off crowds and stood in long lines just to save a buck, but we always have fun. I am so lucky that I have such great in-laws and relatives on Michael's side of the family. We are all really close and I absolutely love spending time with them all.

All of the little kids loved playing with Jayla. Jayla only cried a few times the whole weekend because she was constantly being entertained and the little kids kept sharing their suckers with her when I wasn't looking. They were so cute!

Adoption Finalization

We were able to finalize Jayla's adoption this last Wednesday. It was almost as if Jayla new that what was going on because she was extra excited and happy that morning. While we were waiting for the judge to become available Jayla kept squealing, giggling and smiling. Everything went smoothly and we were so excited to have that done. Jayla was such a good girl during the whole thing, of course she usually is a good girl.



This is us with our lawyer, case worker and Michael's parents. My parent could not come unfortunately. We loved both our caseworker (She is so on the ball and she is very sweet) and our awsome lawyer.

6 Months Old

We can't believe that Jayla is so old already. Jayla is as happy as ever. Jayla loves going to bed at night. She squeals and kicks her legs when we put her in her bed. We cover her up and leave the room. We never hear a peep out of her. This is no lie. Jayla loves to click her tongue. She loves to eat squash and cereal. She can help hold her own bottle. She can push up onto her knees and she can turn around in circles on her belly. She rolls from her back to the stomach and visa versa. She can pull things off the fridge and she loves to watch me cook. She still LOVES music and plays hard every waking moment. She still loves to chace mom and dad in her walker and she hates to be alone. She loves other little kids and smiles at EVERYONE. She is a happy girl. She loves peek-a-boo. She giggles every time when we play that game with her. She loves to kick things with her feet and play with paper. She now has her first tooth. She also loves to be on Michael's shoulders.

Brian and Jayla

This is Brian, Michael's brother. He and his wife are moving up here from down south. We are so excited! We have been trying to get everyone to move up here with us for a long time since all of Michael's married brothers live in Cedar City. We are one step closer.
Jayla loved playing with uncle Brian. Michael was holding her and she would even reach fro Brian because she wanted him to hold her. We are glad that she isn't scared of strangers, at least for right now. It will be a different story when she is older

Morning Girl

This is what Jayla does when she gets excited. I absolutely love it!! She opens her mouth as wide as she can. She especially does it when we help her walk around the house. She loves feeling like a big girl. She had just woken up for the day and she is usually so happy to finally be awake and to be able to play. (Try to ignore the slobber spot which is a constant accessory.)



There she is again always with her fingers in her mouth. What a cutie!!



I love this shot!! Michael always has to reach his quota of Jayla time before he heads off for work. He gets jealous that I get to stay home with her all day and play with her.



I absolutely love our new camera!! There is no way that I could have captured these shots with our old camera. Anyone debating on whether or not to buy a really expensive camera...it is so worth it. Especially if you have kids and you don't want to miss anything. I would recommend a Nikon d40 or a cannon with similiar features plus a flash, which is very useful for indoor shots. It was a great investment.

Yummy!!

Michael came home from work and as usual started throwing Jayla around and then he put her on his shoulders (She loves to be up high to look at everything). Well little did Michael know that she had just eaten a whole banana which ended up in his hair. Yum.

Fall is Here

Yeah so fall is officially here with all of the changing leaves. The only downside is that you have to rake them all up. Jayla was getting bored so I decided to take her outside with me while I raked a few piles. She didn't quite know what to think when I put her in the middle of all those leaves. She didn't move at all because it was so new to her, but I managed to get a few grins out of her.

BEAR BUM

I wanted to get Jayla some warm tights for the winter time. I pulled these out of the closet and it took me a minute to figure out why there was a picture of a bear on the back of her tights. Apparently Jayla thinks it is funny too.

Playing Outside

Here Jayla and I are enjoying the last day of warm weather. Jayla is checking out the grass trying to eat it. I kept trying to take pictures of her but she kept getting her hands in the way because she was trying to grab the camera. The last picture is Michael's favorite. When we go inside I find grass everywhere. I am so glad that we spent a lot of time outside because when I woke up this morning there was snow on the ground. I couldn't believe it!

Pickles

Michael loves pickles so one day he decided to give a pickle to Jayla to see how she would react. Wow she loves pickles now. She cries every time that she drops the thing until we give it back to her. When we give it back to her she pounces on it like a cat because she is so excited to have it back. It is quite entertaining.