Learning Young

After I got the girls out of the bath yesterday I came out of my room to find this....

She does not like when Kenya gets in her "space"

18 months!

My baby is gone, she is moving into toddlerhood. We adore this little one. At eighteen months Leila...

Loves getting her teeth brushed.
Loves her books, when she gets out of her crib she points and grunts at the books until you give her one, then she'll carry it around and look at it for a while. She's constantly scooting her little bum onto my lap with a book in hand.
Loves her binky. She's getting a little attached. I try to only give it at naps but she knows what drawer they're in and points, screams, and cries for it. I give in. A lot.
Loves helping me empty the dishwasher.
Loves fruit snacks and runs to the pantry whenever it is open.
Is going to nursery and loves it. Her first time there she pretty much played on the slide the whole time, which she also loves.
Runs to me every morning when she sees me, runs to Mark every night when he gets home.
Only says a few words- mama, dadda, all done, hot, more, baba (bye bye), nana (banana), ball, what's that. Although she has said these words she doesn't use them all the time. She is jabbering a lot, pointing and talking, it's cute.
Dances to music when it comes on the TV.
Loves her baths with Kenya.
Plays well with Kenya in the playroom. So nice.
Takes about a 3 hour nap.
Sleeps about 12 hours at night.
Climbs on my lap whenever I'm sitting down, gives me sweet hugs for a couple seconds before moving on.
Lets me rock her at night. Charlie would sit on my lap (barely) while I read and sang to him. Kenya liked to be held like a baby and look at me when I sang to her. Leila likes to face me and lay her head down on my chest while I sing to her and she'll stay like that for a long time. I love it.

Weight- 22lbs- 25%
Height- 32"- 75%

Ha! Love that I caught this.

Look at those lips!

Snow!

It finally snowed around here! We woke up last Saturday morning and had quite a few inches. It was a fun surprise for the kids. I was suppose to go running that morning and when I saw the snow I didn't think we'd go but we decided to go anyway, (well, Cami and Keri made the decision, I just went along because I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have been my decision!) I'm glad I did though, it felt good and really wasn't a big deal running through some slush. We even got sprayed by a few cars, lucky us. When I got back Mark had all the kids outside playing in the snow. Leila's first time out in the cold stuff, she loved it.



We have no hills around us. This is the sad little hill that the kids were sliding down made from the snow plow.

Next time we will take them to a better hill.

We came inside, drank hot chocolate and got warm. Mark and I took Charlie to a friend's baptism and when we got back the kids went back outside. Kenya wanted to build a snowman so I went out and helped her. His name was Frosty of course. She loves that song and the movie.

After plowing a few neighbors driveways with his new four wheeler plow Mark helped with the finishing touches on Frosty. Charlie was of course off with his friends.

Caught her tasting a couple times.

Our Frosty.

Charlie and Kenya played outside for about 3 hours! It was getting dark and they still didn't want to come in. At one point Charlie came in and said "Kenya knocked Frosty over and she was crying but we made her feel better." I went out there and Frosty was gone. She was trying to give him a hug. Her and Kylie were "rebuilding" him though.


A few minutes after that they had him turned into Rudolph with a red cap for his nose and the sticks for antlers. They were singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." It was pretty darn cute.

New Years Fun

I think I've said it before, New Years has kind of been a drag holiday most of my life. It's like you're anticipating something great but usually something great isn't going on, or maybe what should be great in most peoples mind isn't really my kind of great. :) Well, I've come to realize that I don't like a huge crowd, or lots of people that I don't know so for the last couple years we've kept it simple and hung out with a couple of our neighbors and friends, and I might just be starting to like New Years now. :) We got a babysitter for a couple hours so we could all go to dinner (Mikado was the choice this year, yummy sushi!) After dinner we came back to our home and our kids played games, watched movies, ran around, fell asleep (well only one) while we hung out and eventually played some golf (the card game that is), ate fondue and chips and dip, and enjoyed some bubbly and a few New Years kisses. I know it doesn't sound that exciting but that's my kind of New Years.

Chelsa, me, and Amy. It was Chelsa's birthday, next year we won't rely on Jeff to have a cake for her. :)

Lovin this picture of the boys and their fondue.

Kennedi and Charlie eventually came downstairs and hung around us while playing their own games.

The mormon drink.

Watching the count down.

This is where our "crazy" sets in...

Drinking straight out of the bottle and kissing our spouses. We all had to take a few pics of the kissing to get it right, ours still is retarded. :)

I couldn't stop laughing.

Hope that doesn't gross any of you out!

12:35, still bright eyed, the party ended right about then. I was grateful for 11:00 church the next day, that Mark didn't have meetings and helped me with the kids, that Leila had her first day of nursery and did great, that after church we all took naps, and that the crockpot made us dinner that night. Happy New Year!

The Lights

It's been a few years since we've been to temple square to see the lights, it doesn't seem like it but it has. We went out for family night. My kids loved it, I loved it, it is mind boggling how many lights are on those trees, so beautiful. We kept it pretty short and sweet though, it was freezing and we were hungry.

Kenya loved this blue tree.