This Holiday Season

I have been really enjoying this Christmas season.  I've done a little Christmas shopping mostly things I would have bought anyways but since it's close to Christmas I've decided to just wrap them up so Kailah can have some fun. 
I'm really torn with Christmas lately now that I am older and Christmas means something different to me than it did when I was a child...I haven't figured out how we are going to celebrate as our kids get older, are we going to do the whole Santa thing? Should we make a special trip to Utah to see family each year? Should we do service every Christmas and just be thankful for what we already have??  I don't know!!! Thankfully this year Kailah still doesn't quite understand but I'm hoping by next Christmas I can figure this all out and start making our own family traditions.
I always had really BIG Christmases and my parents always made them really special, having divorced parents I also got double the presents..or so it seemed... At my Dad and Step-mom's house presents went half way up the tree and spread all the way out covering more than half of the room.(there was 12 kids they were buying for!) My step-mom Angie would line up everyone's gifts and we would all rip them open and see who could get to the tree first!  I always had at least ten gifts and some were even from the dollar store, and I didn't even care cause I was a kid and it was so magical.
I remember one year, we lived in Logan, UT and my mom couldn't afford to do Christmas and we actually had a Santa Clause come to our house and drop off donated gifts...I remember it being so special, even as a child, It didn't matter where the gifts came from. I was just so happy to have something new.
My mom always had a real Christmas tree, sometimes the tree was small and all the ornaments were home made or childhood crafts we made at school. 
All in all the best part about my child hood Christmases were staying up late with my siblings, being so excited we couldn't even sleep.  We would all sleep in the same room in the basement and listen as our parents would bring in the presents at 12:00.  I don't ever remember believing in Santa Clause and I never remember finding out it He wasn't real...I don't know if that was because I was the youngest of 4 older sisters, but I always new our parents did the Christmas shopping.  Christmas to me is about being with family, and feeling the spirit of giving.  I want my Children to grow up with this same feeling of family and love.

So this year Kailah has started learning about Santa Claus, she sees him (from a distance) every time we go to the mall and she points and says "Santa, HO HO HO!"  last weekend we had our Church Christmas Party and Santa came to visit and hand out stockings.  Kailah was so excited to see Santa and would just say his name and point saying "HO hO Ho" and then it was her turn to sit on his lap and as soon as he picked her up she started screaming! LOL!  It was so funny, she did not love that at all! he quickly gave her a stocking which quieted her for a minute and then she was done and screamed her way off his lap.

I already have wrapped gifts under our tree and Kailah hasn't touched them, I don't think she realizes they are there.  She love the "balls" on our tree and she also love plugging in our christmas tree lights even though only the top 1 strand (out of 4 strands!)lights up!

Just a few more really pretty pictures of Kailah.

 Love this face! CHEEEEEESE!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

I Love these first pictures of Kailah on Thanksgiving Day!  There are very few times when I will pull out the camera and she will look and smile or do something silly.  I cherish the photos I have with her being her silly self.

We spent Thanksgiving this year at our apartment with a few friends and my grandma.  This was the first time I have ever cooked a turkey...It wasn't til I got home that I realized it was only a Turkey breast.  It wasn't even the whole thing...It still grossed me out and thank goodness for my friend Nikki being there, she did all the dirty work, like washing the turkey and pulling the skin up on it, I put the timer in the thigh brushed seasoning on it and stuck it in the bag...I don't think I even touched it the whole time. LOL!

All the food turned out really great!  The only food that was a flop was my Jello.  It never set overnight! apparently if you put pineapple in it it doesn't set?? Well I didn't know that, I was really bummed about that since I never make Jello and was really craving it.

After dinner we watched a movie, took a nap, and played some nintendo.  It was a very relaxing day.

We spent the rest of the weekend with our friends.  We went to the Grove in LA and ate outside and enjoyed the christmasy atmosphere they have there. Mid-way through our dinner it even started to snow...fake snow from soap, but it was still really neat.

Kailah 19 month check up.

Kailah had a check up today.  Her stats are:

Height: 31 1/2 inches - 25th percentile

Weight: 19 1/2lbs - 0 percentile.

I can't believe how mini she is because to me she looks so big and so tall sometimes AND she eats like crazy.  She has always eaten really well. hmmm... Thanks to Jason's side of the family for all those small jeans I guess. :)

(Move on over Marilyn!)

Kailah has gotten to be VERY shy when she meets new adults.  It takes her a little bit to warm up but as soon as she does she is the fun, loving, little girl I see everyday at home.

 She loves nursery and will often cry when we leave church, part of those tears are due to it being way past her naptime.

Kailah got her first pairs of Elmo undies and the Elmo potty time movie and she loves it.  She is SO cute to watch walk around the house in Undies.  I will be sure to post undie pics soon.  She also got some Yo gaba gaba undies that she likes just as much as the Elmo ones. :)

Dancing around the house is a daily morning routine for Kailah and I.  I love all the special moments like that, that I get to have with her.  She has been very well behaved lately and always smiling and giving hugs. 

Halloween 2010

This was Kailah's first Halloween where she really understood what was going on.   We went to a fall fest and played some games and then to our stake Trunk-or-Treat for a little candy collecting.  Kailah enjoyed going around to each trunk and putting out her hand for candy, once she got a piece, she did a great job of putting it into her bucket.  By the time we hit a few trunks she started to understand the routine and would excitingly grab my hand and want to move on to the next trunk.  If we stopped to chat with anyone she would get really impatient and grab my hand and pull as if to say let's GO!  This was the first time Kailah has ever had candy and she LOVES it. Especially suckers!  She fell asleep with a sucker in her hand while we were driving home.

This is the first year in a long time that Jason and I haven't dressed up for Halloween! We were such lame-o's this year! BOOOO!  I have been really busy, and Halloween just kind of snuck up on me.  Next year I will make sure to plan a fun Halloween party.  I'm so glad Kailah had a great Halloween though, and that's really what this holiday is about is the kids, even though we like to think we still are the kids. :)

 We spent a day at the pumpkin patch with some friends this past week.  The girls loved it!  I hope Kailah will always keep her girlfriends close and stay a kid as long as possible.

(and if she's like Jason then that should be pretty easy for her. LOL!)

I love all the silly and sweet things Kailah does lately.  She has this dolly that she always wraps up in a blanket and says "nigh, nigh" and she always feeds her stuffed animals whatever she is eating.  She likes to walk backwards and she is starting to talk in different voices. Like low tones and high tones mimicking things that we say.  We rented the Elmo goes potty movie from the Library and she loves it! She always says "emo,pottee"  It's really helped her understand more about the potty and knowing that she needs to tell one of us if she needs to go.  She's told me a few times "pottee, pottee" and she goes to the bathroom door.  And I am sure there are times she tells me but I'm not paying attention to what she is saying so she just goes in her diaper.  I'm trying to decide if I want to really crack down this early or if I want to wait til after the holidays, so we can BOTH relax....

Kailah is sick again this week, I'm sure she got sick from Nursery on Sunday so I guess that's what we have to look forward to for the next while with her.  So I found her binka (stuffed between our couch cushins) and decided to give it to her since she was so sick.  So she's back ON the Binka! ONLY for the night time though...

oh parenting..... 

:)

*~Happy Autumn~*

The weather has been real rainy and the temperatures have dropped.  Seeing everyone put up their fall decorations really gave me the itch to get into the holiday spirit.  This week my visiting teachers gave us pumpkin hand soap from bath and body works, which is so yummy.  So I pulled out our pumpkin spice candle. Got into our Halloween decorations and went to the store to buy 3 perfect pumpkins.  I am now officially feeling in the Halloween spirit.  I pulled out my brown boots that I haven't worn in 9months and when we went out this weekend I was enjoying being bundled up in Jackets, scarfs, and mittens.

My friend Mandy told me how she was "mad at the Summer and told it, sorry, but you'll have to just try again next year." Dang Summer! She was SOOO over summertime so I decided it was time that I be too.  I am now embracing the weather and am enjoying our Autumn season.

We enjoyed a fun date night at a High School Football game this weekend.  Check the dating divas blog tomorrow to see the details about that, but it was so much fun that we think we might do it again this weekend.  Kailah really enjoyed the game and being around all the loud people.  There was so much to look at she just sat on our laps and stared at everything going on.

Kailah 18months

Kailah is 18 months old now which means she is now in nursery at church! Yay! Even though she is allowed to go in by her self, I am still going to go in with her probably through the end of the year.  She has done really great in there, it's interesting to see how she is starting to take direction and listening to the teachers, well choice listening I should say.  There are so many kids in her nursery I feel bad for the leaders that are in there. 

Kailah is now drinking from a cup all by herself.  I still only give her water from a cup cause she still spills, but I am so proud to see her do this, It's one of those things that just makes you realize what a little girl she is and that she is not a baby anymore.  Although she's still my little baby and I still try to hold her and cuddle her, even though she hates it when I try to.

I think it's safe to say that she is officially off the BINKA! another YAY! Well sometimes it's a "Yay!" and other days it's a "Where the HECK is that DANG BINKA!" LOL!  I wasn't planning on totally losing the binky, but that's exactly how it happened this time, we LOST the binky. I can not find it anywhere, I have searched this apartment high and low and I just can't seem to find it.  So no more binka for Kailah.  Since not having a binky around, Kailah has had shorter nap times during the day, but she actually sleeps better at night. She used to wake up in the middle of the night wanting her binky and now that she doesn't have one it seems she understands that and she goes right back to sleep.

Kailah loves to talk, as usual, and some of her new favorite words are "bubbles", "water", "apple" and still "shoe".  She also is learning peoples names, and learning more body parts like shoulders and knees.
She knows how to fold her arms and close her eyes and can almost do it through a short prayer.  She enjoys learning new songs and going outside to play especially when there are other kids around. 
Kailah loves to play with her daddy and get lots of tickles. she likes to jump off the ottoman and have daddy catch her.  She loves playing games and getting chased or chasing other kids, even when the other kids don't realize she is chasing them. :D

We had our first real shoe shopping experience, went to payless, let her try on all the different shoes, and let her choose which ones she likes.  I am now trying to hold up two options and let her choose.  We went to the dollar store and I held up a few coloring books and she chose the one she liked, Sesame Street.  And at Blockbuster last night I held up Baby Einsteins, Barney, Elmo etc... I showed her  lots of different movie covers for kids and we chose a few she seemed to like the covers of or was just holding a lot.  We ended up getting Baby Einstein's  but she is familiar with Rocket who is one of the characters.

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures of Kailah lately.  I think I have kind of given up on this stage and getting her to look at the camera.  I'm a little mad at myself tho cause I feel like I have missed so many cute moments.  I am going to be better at taking candid pictures of things we are doing throughout everyday.  Now that I have my dslr camera I hate pulling it out just to take a snapshot, but I do have a camera on my iphone so I am going to try and take more photos that way, so I can capture every moment.

The last 6months have flown by so quickly I don't even know what happened to it.  This past week I made a special effort to just spend quality time with Kailah for a whole day.  We went out to lunch and went to the park and the water fountain.  I had a lot of fun and I know she did too.

I can't believe I ever used to wake up early with Kailah. Before we officially lost the Binka, Kailah had been waking up in the middle of the night and then up for the day around 6:30-7am.  That week I was SOOO tired. I just woke up grabbed the bag of cheerios, put in yo gaba gaba and I went back to sleep on the couch while Kailah was having her breakfast from the bag and being entertained by a movie.

Jason and I have never been the type to like animals or characters on clothing for little kids. We always try to dress Kailah in big kid clothing.  My Mom bought Kailah these Ariel winter pajamas and they aren't our style at all, but we put Kailah in them and she looked SO dang cute!  I think I might be ok with characters on pj's only! oh and underwear when we get to that point. :)

I'm trying to find new shows for Kailah to watch.  We don't have cable so I am scouting out all the movies out there that is for her at this age.  Our friends introduced us to Yo Gaba Gaba and she seems to really like that. And we rented a few from Blockbuster, I am interested to see if she ends up really taking to one certain character like some kids do.

I LOVE this stage and HATE this stage.  I seriously think God makes babies so cute at this stage because they are the biggest pain in the butt.  Even though Kailah does super cute and funny things, she is throwing fits and screaming and needing lots of attention.  Next to teaching Kailah how to nurse, disciplining has been one of the hardest things I have had to do this far in her life.  It's not that it's hard for me to hear her cry in her room, it's hard for me to have to repeat and repeat and repeat the disciplining because she doesn't always understand yet.  I'm sure it will sink in, I just can't wait until it does.