February 2016

This is one of Kayla's favorite places to sit at Grandma's house. She is so close to saying Grandma. Every once in a while she'll say am-ma. It's pretty cute. She also likes sitting on the step that's at the entrance of this room. But anytime I pull out my phone to take a picture, she sees me and comes running.

The weekend of Valentines, we went camping with some friends. We went to Sam Houston National Forest. Jacob was pretty stoked to finally get to try out the hammock that his brother gave him. Last August, I helped my Mother in law watch my niece and nephew while their parents were in Nicaragua for a week, when they came home this was a gift that they had brought back for us.

Kayla was so happy to just sit on the ground and play with leaves and get dirty. Which I'll admit was hard for me to stand by and watch. Haha. But she had fun, and she got a good bath when we went home :)

When we got back in town, we got to see Jacob's sister and her family briefly. Jane and Kayla are about 5&1/2 months apart. (Kayla is younger)

Bella's daycare was closed on President's day, and we were more than happy to have her come and play with us all day!

Kayla was so giddy riding in the shopping cart and Bella's car. It was the cutest thing ever. I had to joke with my brother though, that this is what we have to look forward to when Bella starts driving. Haha. It was so fun to watch her drive the two of them around the culdesac!

Jacob turned 25 this month. It was just an excuse for me to spoil him ;)

He woke up to cinnamon rolls with the orange glaze on top. And this "25 reasons why I love you" sign in the bathroom.

For lunch we met up with him at Double Daves and had pizza rolls. Mmm, so good!!

For dinner I made John Wayne Cassarole, a favorite of ours! And dessert was dump cake and blue bell ice cream :)

A lot of people think that Kayla is so cute an innocent, which most the time she is. And then there's her tantrums… Pretty sure all I did was tell her to stay out of the kitchen cabinets as she was making her way to them, and she melted down. Lol…?

Hanging out in Katy with Grandma!

Kayla after a playdate… I love it! Lol.

Most the time when Kayla wakes up, she's pretty happy so I just let her play in her crib. She has a few stuffed animals in there. Normally I can just hear her laugh and squeal and be super cute. Well this time she decided to mess with the stuff on the wall. Apparently, she's tall enough to do that. Well the big K fell down :( Fortunately she was standing in the corner and was untouched, because that would have really hurt her. Now the frame and the K are no longer there...

There is no doubt that she is her father's daughter. Daddy brought home a carburetor one night and she immediately walked over and started to try to pick it up and play with it. I'll admit it was pretty cute.

Hanging out at the park with some friends and the ducks! Actually the highlight was when she got to pet a dog. 

She knows her animal noises. And I really need to record it. Kitty-cat, puppy, and monkey. And she loves when we do elephant, but she can't do it. She also likes cow and sheep, but doesn't do those either.

So sad that my glasses were glaring :(

My favorite goof balls!!

Kayla loves doing big girl things, like walking in the parking lot with Mommy.

I finally got sick enough of her pulling things out of this little cabinet that I turned it to the side. She's trying to open the door, and obviously not being very successful. It was actually pretty funny. Lol.

January 2016

I really hate how little I blog. Because this is really the only journal keeping that I do. So, hopefully I can remember most of the important stuff…

Kayla finally started taking steps in December. She's been cruising the furniture since she was about 7 or 8 months, but it took her until almost 12 months to finally do it on her own. Here's a video of her walking. She had already been doing it for a week or two, but this is this best I could do to record it. And now she's a pro. My favorite is when she sees me from across the room and comes running to hug me :)

For Christmas, Grandma McConnell made each of the grandkids a little photo album with pictures and quotes and what not. Kayla's favorite page is the one with Grandma and Papa. She gets so excited to see them. And she's working hard to say their names!

Playing in the front yard. It was a gorgeous day. We sure love Texas winters ;)

Sometimes, mommys have to do hard things. Like encouraging messes in hopes of teaching kids how to eat a little more independently… It only took a million paper towels, wet wipes, and clorox wipes to clean up. But she was happy (and full!) , so it was worth it :)

I decided that I wanted a few "1 year" pictures of Kayla. These are some of the best ones I got.

And then a few more for some comparison. It's so hard to believe that she was ever that small!!

I have the worst memory when it comes to her 1 year check up stats... All I remember is that she was 25 lbs. (She was 7 lbs 9 oz when she was born)

Kayla is still the happiest kid ever!

She loves to smile and laugh. And Daddy can still get her to smile the biggest and laugh the loudest!

She can give kisses, but only when she wants to ;)

She gives the best hugs!! Whenever we pick her up and hug her, we must pat her back a lot. Because now whenever we do it, she'll pat our backs. Haha.

She especially loves to cuddle her stuffed animals/dolls. Elmo, her baby doll, and a dolly that my Mom gave her are her favorites to cuddle and kiss. Although the baby doll gets eaten/chewed on more than kissed. Must feel good on her teeth. Lol.

Speaking of which, she has 9! With 2 molars slowly making their ways through! So I guess 11 ;)

Her hair is growing like crazy! But she hates when I try to do anything with it. Especially put bows in! We're working on that though ;)

She is so stinking smart! She can opening cabinet doors, pull the kitchen doors open, open her toy box, and the lego and blocks zippers.

And she totally know whats no is. But depending on her mood she either ignores it or throws a tantrum 

She loves books! She especially loves pulling all of them off the shelf. Lol. We're working on actually reading them vs her eating/ripping/destroying them though.

When we get to play with friends (confession, I'm a major homebody, so it's maybe every couple of weeks) she always loves it!! even if she has a hard time sharing toys. But she always is worn out afterwards and take good naps, which Mommy loves. Haha.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point ;) We sure love our cute 1 year old!!!

 

The weekend before her birthday, we went down to Katy to celebrate with some of my family.

Kayla LOVES Elmo!

Poor thing didn't take any naps that day, and was so exhausted by the time we were eating cake. The only way she would try it was if Daddy fed it to her. (And then she had a breakdown. So we took a bath, put jammas on, and drove home. We had to be back for 9am church + Jacob's 7am meeting the next day)

We had been talking about getting Kayla these Duplo Blox for a while. It was well worth it!!

She was so excited when she woke up on her birthday and they were in the living room waiting for her.

Poor thing, she was with me when I bought them. And she wanted them so bad. I kept them in our room for a few days before her birthday, and whenever she saw them I'd have to take them away and she'd get so upset. But now she can happily play with them whenever she wants :) One of her favorite things to do is open the bag (Yes, she can do it by herself, crazy!!) and dump the whole thing :)

Kayla and Papa share a birthday. So that evening we went to Grandma and Papa's house to celebrate them both! Kayla turned 1 and Papa turned 60.

As I mentioned before, Kayla LOVES Elmo. In fact, it was one of the first words she could say. Mama, Dadda, and Elmo… My sister gave me this Elmo a long time ago, and we just brought it home from my parent's house. But it's been sitting in my sewing to do pile because his leg needs stitched up. Well that pile happens to be in the closet of Kayla's room. One morning she woke up, and the closet had been left open. I kept thinking she was saying mama (mama vs mel-mo, its sounds pretty similar when she says it), but she was pointing at the closet. The cute girl was saying Elmo. My heart melted and I let her play with him for a little bit. But now he's back in the to-do pile, one day I'll finally get around to it ;) Seriously, I find it so hard to get anything done with her around. Haha.

A few days after her birthday, Kayla got sick. I was really worried, because we kept fighting high fevers on and off for about 2 days.

I thought we were in the clear, but then this rash showed up. All over her body :( Luckily it didn't bother her at all, it just looked really bad. We're pretty sure it was Roseola. But by the time we had an appointment, it had gone away.