Oh Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree the other day. Jayla was amazed by all of the lights, but we have been surprised that she hasn't tried to climb it just yet. It was a lot of fun! When we were decorating the tree Jayla was very helpful...As we pulled all of the ornaments out of the bag she put them all back in and put them away. I guess I have taught her well...

This was our tree a day later...notice anything strange?


It is a good thing that we invested in some plastic ornaments this year. We find these things all over the place...but I love it! I have been waiting for some little child to pull all of the ornaments off of the Christmas Tree.

t

Little Mama

Jayla loves playing with her baby. She climbs up on the rocking chair lazy boy and rocks her baby. She then tells the baby to go to sleep and pats it on the back and rubs its head...(I wonder where she got that..) She also tells it "oh sorry" when she has to put it down to eat her crackers. She even tells her baby to "sit" next to her while she watches her "show." She is a good little mama.

Thanksgiving Weekend Continued

For Thanksgiving weekend we stayed with Uncle Kevin and Aunt Leslie. That Saturday we were able to play outside! It was so perfect. It was fun to be in a place so warm for Thanksgiving...and Jayla had so much fun playing with all of her cousins.

Kirby and Kolby were so good with Jayla. They kept playing with her and she loved it! As you can tell by the grin on her face!

I love this picture of Riley. She is such a cute girl.

Us playing with uncle Kevin's puppies. They have 10!

After playing with the puppies that was all that Jayla could talk about..."puppies, outside!"

Jayla kissing the puppy...she has such a tender heart! She absolutely adored the puppies! I guess we know what we are getting her for Christmas next year.

We are still trying to teach her how to be gentle to the little puppies.

I love this picture! Jayla is so cute!

Black Friday

So where is this exotic place you ask...The Bass Pro Shop in Vegas. This is one of our favorite stores to go to on Black Friday. Yes, we wake up at 3:30 in the morning and start shopping. It is a family tradition to go shopping on Black Friday every year. We usually shop in Colorado, Salt Lake or Vegas depending on where we are having Thanksgiving that year. Doesn't it sound so tortuous? That is what I thought until Michael introduced me to it three years ago. It is actually a lot of fun! All of the chaos and the adrenaline rush as you try to find your items before they run out, just when you are bummed that you can't find your items one of your family members find it ditched in an isle. Not to mention how the sleep deprivation lets you see the giddy side of the already smart-aleck adults, and who can forget the free breakfast at Sams Club. No, nothing can compare to shopping on Black Friday.

We thought that we were all so funny posing...remember that we all woke up at 3:30 in the morning.

Deanne...hopefully she doesn't get mad at me for putting her on our blog (smile).

I know that this picture is really blurry, (taken with my camera phone) but I needed proof of how the adults act while all of the kids are away! I love my family!

Thanksgiving in Nevada

This year we had Thanksgiving with Michael's family in Nevada. His grandma just got back from serving a mission in the LDS church, so she was so excited to have almost her whole family here! It was great to have so many people around us that we love! It was a short weekend because we had so much fun.

Nolan, Morgan and Kirby sneaking some Thanksgiving turkey...look at those guilty grins!

Aunt Kim sneaking some pie...and proud of it.

How many pies does it take to feed 120 people? Apparently a lot.

Uncle Kevin couldn't resist sneaking Jayla a piece of pie when she asked, "BITE." After all, isn't that what uncles are for.

Jayla with her Great grandma!

Sharon, Michael's mom and my aunt Janette. Two of my most favorite in-laws! They were trying to dodge the picture, but I got them.

Jayla and Sidney playing in the backyard at grandma's house. Don't they look like they are having so much fun!

A few random family pictures.

Here is a view of us dining outside. The weather was so perfect. It was a little sad to see snow as we were driving back to Utah...oh well I guess it will be time to introduce Jayla to the snow.

Jayla playing with Kenyon. She loved "petting" his head.

Here she is giving him a hug. She couldn't resist those cute cheeks.

Riley and Jayla. Riley was so good with Jayla and Jayla fell in love with Riley. Jayla even learned to say her name.

Jayla and Her Daddy

I have found it so interesting how Jayla always seems to be the happiest when we are all home together. My favorite thing is to watch her run up to her daddy when he gets home and give him a great big hug. Whenever he leaves in the morning daddy can't leave without Jayla getting a kiss from him. She also gets sad if he leaves the room, especially when she hasn't seen him all day. I am so grateful that she has such a strong bond with her daddy!

Baby Signing Time

These are the best videos ever! We started signing with Jayla when she was 6 months old. She finally made her very first sign at 9 and half months old. I bet you can guess which sign it was...MORE. She has caught on real fast. There are four different videos with about 40 signs on each video and Jayla knows them ALL. Her first words were the words that she could sign! She has even started making up signs for the words she doesn't know. (That is a rough couple of days trying to figure out what she wants. Thank goodness for sign language.) We know exactly what she wants most of the time because she can both sign and say the word. (She still doesn't talk that clear so the signs give us a clue as to what she is saying.) She has a huge vocabulary because of this and she is now starting to put a few words together to form half of a sentence! It has been so great! We plan on signing with all of kids.