California Trip January 2014

Lyla and I had a fabulous time going to Santa Rosa this January. It was great to escape the cold weather and enjoy 75 degrees for a change. All the locals have been praying for rain, but I was praying that the rain would hold out till I was gone, and I must be super righteous because my prayers were answered--it started drizzling the day I left.

We had such a great time seeing old friends, eating good food, and bonding with Grandma and Grandpa. Lyla especially liked Grandpa who played piano with her, took her outside, and fed her chocolate chips when mommy wasn't looking. Grandma worked hard to help mommy by babysitting Lyla, making Lyla special food, and trying to save her life by teaching her not to climb on things like the kitchen table. Lyla apparently doesn't appreciate those things as much as she does chocolate chips at this point in her life. We're working on it :).

Grandpa feeding Lyla broccoli

My mom and i went out to lunch at my favorite Taqueria, and Lyla got creative with the high chair

Lyla and Grandma after lunch

Lyla mastered the art of climbing while we were at my parent's and this chair was one of her favorites

Lyla also loved having this little folding chair just her size and she even got to bring it back to Utah with her!

Doing her best to get to the computer

Grandma reading to Lyla

The dirt in the winebarrel was a HUGE hit!

Someone learned how to fold her arms on our trip--her new favorite trick!

Finally finished and parted with this quilt for dear baby Madeline

Lyla and I before heading over to Kaitlin's house

All the phones in the house were a favorite!

My dearest friends and their darling babes were kind enough to leave their husbands to come hang out with Lyla and I for a few days. It was so wonderful to be all together on our home turf again.

All of our babes together!! BFF's second generation!

Lyla had a pretty good time!

Lyla and her Grandpa

Lyla really took to Grandpa and had a great time playing the piano with him

Lyla finally warming up to Grandma toward the end of our trip!

We had such a great time that we were a little sad to come back home to the cold. We were glad to see Daddy again, but there's nothing quite like going home.

Lyla Update

Lyla loves to play peekaboo. She pretty much started doing it by herself one day and she loves to randomly cover her eyes and start playing with us. She definitely knows/understands more than we think. She has a book about little hands and there is a page about peekaboo. We hadn't been reading that book as much lately, but when we got to that page she started covering her eyes and playing before I read anything. I tried it another day to see if it was a fluke and she did it again. Genius, I tell you :)

She was blowing kisses for a while too, but she gets a little confused between that and peekaboo

She loves to put her shoes on these days. Whenever she finds one of her shoes around the house, she will bring it to me and have me put it on. The other day she enjoyed walking around the house with her little gold shoes on over her footie pajamas.

She cuddles way more these days. It is really nice.

She seems to be getting friendlier with people again after going through another "stranger danger" period.

She says and mimics quite a few things, but its always hard to tell what are truly words she knows. Here are some things she knows how to say, or has possibly said: hi, mama, dat(dad), nana(banana), thank you, yoda, and this morning I'm pretty sure she said eggs as I was serving her her breakfast.

Lyla and her "nana"

Walking is her primary mode of transportation these days, with just a little crawling sprinkled in.

Her favorite activities include emptying/destroying everything she can get her hands on (her favorite right now is emptying the wipes container) and playing in the toilet.

A month or so ago, Todd started doing Wookie noises to Lyla. She likes to try to do them back, and often initiates it with him. It's like their little "I love you" code, and its actually pretty darn cute.

She is obsessed with the drinking fountain at church. She climbs the little stool and then grabs or Todd's or my pointer finger and puts it right on the button that turns on the water.

This girl LOVES ice.

I think Lyla is quite a bit smarter than her tricks may show, but i feel like her little independent/stubborn spirit just makes her want to go at her own pace and do basically what she feels like doing :). We love her little personality and wouldn't trade her for all the calm/mellow babies in the world(though we hope to have one of those too one day)!

Christmas 2013

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We kicked things off a few days early for my family's traditional Aebelskiver night that we've been doing with the Utah Funks for a few years now. Debbie hosted in her brand new kitchen, and it was fun to have the Drapers with us this year!

Debbie in her beautiful, almost completed, kitchen

Dallin was in charge of a candy bar game for all the kdis

And Todd and I walked away with some pretty sweet prizes from the adult white elephant

On Christmas Eve we headed up to the Barfusses for a delicious Steak and Salmon dinner and a fun night with the fam. I loved Lyla with her cousins in their Christmas jammies.

aren't they cute?

I had a hard time picking a favorite

And then they were done...I think its kind of a miracle that we got a few good pictures in there!

Our little fam bam Christmas Eve

Then Christmas morning came. We all met up in Sarah's room to open our stockings and prep to go downstairs. It was so fun to be with everyone, and Lyla was pretty excited about the whole thing, especially the candy (she didn't get to unwrap any, but she still seemed to know exactly what was inside).

I think to say that Santa came this year would be an understatement. We were unbelievably spoiled and I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy every second of it. Lyla was a ton of fun and while she definitely didn't "get it", it was still lots of fun to watch her run around.

Lyla discovering the presents Christmas morning...the binder clip holding up her pants is a nice touch--she's a skinny little thing!

Excited!

Lyla LOVED the garbage bag Papa was playing with

Lyla's new favorite toy from Mimi and Papa

Lyla's Christmas present to Daddy was some Bronco's gear for herself. She's ready for the Super Bowl!

Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the season:

I kind of love this picture

This is just very Lyla...always pulling out her bow and acting like she did you a favor

We finished off Christmas day by hopping over to Debbie's for an awesome roast beef Christmas Dinner! It was perfect, and so nice to have her so close to the Barfusses. All in all, I would say that Christmas 2013 was one of the best in recent memory!

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year. We were lucky enough to be invited to participate in a little Barfuss family vacation down to Saint George. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed playing basketball, golfing, going for walks, watching movies, getting pedicures, and eating great food (obviously). It was especially fun because Spencer and Sydney were able to fly in for the Holiday, and the only way it could have been better is if Laura and the Glenns could have made it as well.

Our Thanksgiving dinner crew. Excepting me, of course. Those are Syd's cute grandparents in the front.

This little girl enjoyed hamming it up in the corner and eating chocolate covered pretzels.

Probably the greatest mother-in-law of all time

All the ladies

Syd talked me into taking a picture with the pies I made. Honestly, i'm sad to say that they were not my best work--guess there's always next year!

Grandma and Grandpa Come to Town

Back in early November, my parents came to visit. It was really great to have them. My dad fixed about a million little quirks in our house, and my mom babysat a few times, which allowed us to do things like go on a date and officially change my last name--finally! Everything was perfect, other than the fact that Lyla is going through a little stranger danger and had a hard time warming up to her Grandparents. She actually warmed up to Grandpa first and enjoyed participating in helping him fix things, especially electronics. One great thing that happened while my parents were here is that my mom taught Lyla how to go down stairs on her tummy! I thought she was never going to figure it out, but with my mom's help, she caught on really quickly. It is great not to have to worry as much about her taking a tumble (though she's had a few of those since she "learned").

Before our date to Christopher's

Lyla "helping" Grandpa fix the camera

Grandpa, Lyla, and Grandma--unfortunately a bit blurry