A Collection of Happy Days: May 2016

Little moments that make up our life, May edition.

Kayla loves when Daddy comes home. He's been driving Ruby, and she's loud, so I'll say "Kayla, do you hear that? It's Daddy!" And she'll get super excited and drop what she's doing to go look out the window. I'll open the front door and she'll run out to hug him. It's our little Daddy's homecoming routine ;)

Side note that I forgot in the last post. My explorer is dead :( It actually died twice on me. Once I was driving to meet Jacob for lunch and I was stopped at a light on a fairly busy road. Fortunately, it was like 11:30am so it wasn't crazy busy. And the radio went out. And then the dashboard lit up. And it died. Commence freak out. Turns out my emergency flashers weren't even blinking. Thank goodness people were paying attention and no one rammed into the back of us. As I was sobbing on the phone with Jacob, who was on his way to me, a nice gentleman had pulled over to help. He calmed me down and got me and Kayla out of the car and onto the sidewalk. For some reason, we couldn't even get the car in neutral to push it though. Right as another gentleman stopped to help, Jacob got there. Jacob was able to put it in neutral and the 3 of them got it onto a side street and out of the way.

Jacob fixed it and got it home that evening after work. (Or so we thought)

A few days later, I was going to meet him at his parent's house after he got off work. About half way there, I noticed the car wasn't accelerating. So I pulled into the center lane to turn left into a parking lot. And it pretty much stopped accelerating. It was somewhat busy, but this time my flashers were working and I was technically out of the way. When it was clear to turn left into the Applebees parking lot, I did. Well mostly. I was able to get in the entrance of the parking lot and out of the roadway (it was slightly uphill). Commence freak out #2… Jacob was on his way again and I was sobbing on the phone with him (again) because people could barely get by me to get in and out of the parking lot. And some guys came to help push me into a parking spot out of the entrance. My car sat in the Applebees parking lot for a night or two, while we figured out that it was an issue with the transmission that meant we needed a new one, and not just needing more fluid like he previously thought. Jacob and his Dad pulled my car to his parent's house a few days after the second incident went down and it's been sitting there ever since. We normally go over there once or twice a week and it makes me so sad every time I see my broken car sitting dead in the road :( My dad got it shortly after I started driving and I've been driving it since, so I may be a little attached. Although, we've decided to get rid of now. But after the two breakdowns in 1 week, I'm okay with it, but still sad. Haha.

So anyways, since then Jacob has been driving Ruby and I've been driving his truck.

Kayla loves to be outside. She's holding up a stick that she found in this picture. She also loves finding rocks.

Oh, and she loves playing in the dirt.

She loves to dance and shake!

When I'm trying to make dinner is normally her cranky time (although we've been trying to do 2 naps the last week or so and I've found that that makes her less cranky in the evenings) so sometimes I have to let her do things I don't normally let her do, in order to get anything accomplished. Such as tearing the grocery ads to little pieces...

This girl loves to spin in circles. She normally will say "wee wee wee" or "whoa whoa whoa" until she gets so dizzy that she falls over, and then she'll say "uh oh" and do it all over again.

Jacob's buddy, John, built the piece behind them. It's an industrial interpretation of Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam". There's an event in downtown Bryan, where the piece is, the first Friday of every month called "First Friday" and in May they did a little ceremony for the piece John made.

Before Gina and Stephen moved, we made one last temple trip all together (Gina, Stephen, Me, Jacob, and Mike and Janice, Stephen and Jacob's parents) but I don't have a copy of the group picture, so here's the two of us instead :)

I can't get enough of this picture. It was Mother's Day, so we didn't argue about who was changing the stinky diaper. But look at the tie around his nose. Haha. In his defense, we did all have mexican food the night before so the diaper was pretty bad… Lol.

Going through old pictures while at my parent's house.

Another side note, because I like to be real. I always take pictures of the good moments. Because it's so easy to get bogged down by the bad moments. So I try to be optimistic and focus on the good. Well, my anxiety is worse when I'm pregnant. Our original plan for Mother's day weekend was to go to the temple on Saturday and leave Kayla with some friends in CS. And then Sunday, Kayla and I would go to Katy, since I had an appointment on Monday. But we kept going back and forth on when we would leave Saturday morning. And my anxiety was kicking in about when we would leave and how long we would be gone… and then I started thinking about being away from Kayla. And plans kept changing. So I called Jacob breaking down. (Sadly, this happens pretty often, even when I'm not pregnant, but throw in those pregnancy hormones and you get more tears…) I had no problem with leaving Kayla with our friends. I had no problem with going to the temple. For some reason, the combination off all the different things going on was totally setting off my anxiety though. So Jacob, decided that we would just go to Katy Friday night, after we went to First Friday for his friend, and that we would leave Kayla with my family on Saturday, even though we'd still be leaving her somehow that made me feel slightly less anxious, and then Kayla and I would stay in Katy (I had a dentist appointment on Monday) and he would drive home Sunday night. I know it's a huge jumbled mess and probably hard to understand. Basically my anxiety was kicking in hard, and he realized what I needed when I didn't, and I really really appreciate what he does for me when I feel like things are so out of my control. Anyways...

I can see a lot of me in Kayla, I still think she looks more like Jacob though.

Kayla made both of her grandmas a pot with her hand prints for Mother's day. Okay it was mine and Jacobs gifts to them, and she was a big help. One of the lines we added to their cards was something like "one of my favorite things about you being Mom, is that you're our children's Grandma". Cute, I know ;)

We love Sandra Boynton books. I like to especially find them from used book stores. I thought Kayla was over her book eating days, apparently not…

I feel like I've been saying "she must be teething" for a few months now and there's still no teeth breaking through. So I've tried to get out of the habit of blaming it on teething, and accepting that she's just learning and growing and it's hard on her. And she needs me to help her through it. I hope that makes since. It's so easy to say it's just a phase, and it kind of is. But it's also her (or children in general) trying to adjust to their new normal, and we have to learn how to help them and adjust our selves. I don't think I've got this mother thing down at all. But I just feel like that has been a good perspective to have, and that it's helped me to be more patient when things seem out of whack.

I have no idea what they were doing, but hey, nothing wrong with creative play with cousins!

Visiting GG (great grandma)

As I was trying to put all of the groceries away, Kayla was behind me trying to take them all out of the pantry. So I finally gave in and let her play with some cans for a while. She was content.

Again with the dirt. She would sit here all day and play in it if I let her.

I love watching her figure things out. She now knows that the people go in the carriage and you drive it like a car. She even says "vroom"

5 months

looks like baby #2 is a boy!

We even got a profile of him sucking his thumb.

Time for another long story.

So I was convinced that we would have our anatomy scan right around 18 weeks. I've been telling people since we found out that we were pregnant that we should know that sex by the end of April. So the time came (I was 17 weeks) to schedule and my doctor said he'd put the order for an ultrasound in and they will set it up close to 19 weeks. Fine. I'll be patient. I can wait a week. They're normally really good about calling me within a day or two once he sends them an order. (It's the same office, but a separate department that I get my ultrasounds done at.) But I was trying to be patient. I decided I'd just wait until we saw him again for Kayla's 15 month check up. (We see the same doctor) So the time came (I was 18 weeks now) and went and they never called, so when I saw him I told him and he said he'd send them another message. Her appointment was about halfway between when I last saw my doctor and when I thought I'd have my anatomy scan. He told me to let him know if they don't call me by the next day. So I waited. And still no call. So finally I called the office to let them know. And the receptionist that I spoke with went back and forth a few times with the nurse and scheduling for an ultrasound, and basically said "well your doctor never put the order in and he wanted you to be seen at 20 weeks so you now have an appointment scheduled for May 17th". Here come the tears, I tried to hold it together and said "well I'll actually be almost 22 weeks on the 17th and he made it sound like he wanted to see me right around 20 weeks with the ultrasound already done" and her response was some pretty much the same "well he didn't put the order in, so now you're scheduled." Before I lost it on the phone with her, I just agreed and hung up. And then I lost it. I am the most impatient person ever. And I was so convinced that I would find out around 18 weeks, waiting until almost 22 weeks was torture!! Lesson learned: Don't be patient with doctor's offices.

I was also so convinced that it was a girl…

So the day came for the ultrasound. And Jacob and I both woke up sick. Like in and out of the bathroom because of both ends sick. Can't even sit up because you're so dizzy. Can't eat or drink anything because you might throw it up kind of sick. Well he was worse than me. But we were both miserable!! But I was so determined to make it to the appointment. Janice, my mother in law, came and took Kayla for a few hours in the morning before she had to go to work. That helped a ton. I was able to sleep some. And then forced myself into the shower, which helped. Jacob had actually gone to work in the morning, but came home around 9am once he started throwing up. Besides being in and out of the bathroom he was in bed the rest of the day. So he was out for the appointment. I had yet to throw up. But I felt that I could any time. Fortunately, Stephen and Gina were able to come help us too. Kayla had fallen asleep in the car when Grandma brought her back home, so we moved her to nap in her crib. Since Jacob was in bed, and probably not any good to take care of her when she woke up, Stephen came to hang out at the house. And since I knew I couldn't drive, Gina drove me to the appointment and joined me. (I think it worked out pretty well, even though I wish Jacob could have been there, Gina was actually there when we found out about Kayla's gender, too, so that's pretty cool) Anyways, we walked into the office, and I had to throw up. So I walked right back out to do that outside… On the bright side, I felt SO MUCH BETTER after that. Ha. Even though it was disgusting and I was embarrassed, I knew I could make it through the appointment. And it was a boy. I tried to hold back the tears. I was so convinced it was a girl. I even told Gina that when we got back to the house and I told Jacob, that there would probably be tears, and it's okay because I'd come to terms with it eventually, but I was just in shock. Lol. Kayla hadn't been awake too long by the time we got back, and I was surprised that Jacob was even up and sitting on the couch talking with Stephen. All I had to do was look at him, I didn't even have to say it and he knew. Commence tears… (I promise everything is good, now. Actually, the next day when we felt better, we went looking at some clothes and something about those cute little boy clothes turned it all around for me. Haha. Now we're all excited ;) )

The shirt says "daddy's happy I'm a boy" which was so perfect because Jacob has been talking about his little boy since we found out that Kayla was a girl ;)

Kayla just being cute

She actually stacks more than 2 or 3 blocks or legos at a time, now. I'm just so mesmerized that my tiny little baby is growing and learning so much right before my eyes.

We went to Taco Bell one night, and the cashier thought Kayla was adorable. We sat down in a booth with a good view to the register and Kayla was dancing in the booth, and the cashier was dancing with her behind the register. It was really adorable. And the cashier loved Kayla so much that she brought by some cinnamon twists for us to share. Seriously, everyone was a winner that night.

I love her little curls. So I tried to get a picture. I don't think it does it justice though.

Containers. Seriously, she loves them. She spends her entire bath time using her toys to put water in this cup, and then she dumps it all over her. Over and over again.

She also likes Daddy's hats, but never leaves them on long enough for a picture.

You don't sit in a basket and watch TV?

"Helping" Gina and Stephen load up the moving truck.

Obviously she's a good helper...

Saying good-bye. We are so sad to see them go. I mean we're happy for them. New job, new place to live, soon to be baby. But we just wish it could have happened closer ;)

One morning when Jacob came to kiss me goodbye before he went to work, he said there were kittens on the back porch. Yupp, 5 little kittens. They were good at hiding from us in all of Jacob's stuff back there.

One day Kayla will have a little sister to match with. Until then, we've got lots of sweet cousins. And I guess her and brother can color coordinate ;)

Umm, empanadas. OH.EM.GEE. I can't believe I lived in Katy my whole life (until I was 18) and am barely discovering this restaurant.

Have you heard about all the flooding in the Houston area? Well in April we went down for a dentist appointment and Katy flooded. So our appointment was cancelled and we were stuck for a few extra days because the roads were all flooded to get home. This time we went to Katy, and College Station and Bryan got the flooding AND tornados. So the roads home were closed and we had to hang out in Katy a few days extra. We've been very fortunate to not be directly affected by all the bad weather. And really some extra time with Grandma and cousins isn't such a bad deal. (We were just missing Daddy the whole time)

Jacob decided that we should just let the kittens be. They stayed in our yard and on our porch for a few weeks and then I noticed they were gone. A few days later, a friend who lives a few streets down mentioned that there were kittens on her back porch. How crazy is that!? We all got a good laugh.

I have to admit, I've always struggled to be consistent with reading scriptures and praying daily. But it's come to my attention that my efforts are noticed. Kayla knows what folding her arms is, and always folds them when it's time for prayers. We don't even have to ask. We read her bedtime scripture stories and she immediately folds her arms for prayers. She is seriously such a blessing in mine and Jacob's lives. (We weren't praying in the picture, she was just folding her arms and being reverent at church)

Soaking up the sun and laying in the hammock. I mentioned Jacob's buddy, John, previously. He invited us over to a BBQ a few weeks ago and Kayla loved it!

Swimming with Dad

Sometimes you just have to tickle them, so that at least they're smiling, even if they aren't looking at the camera ;)

We had a great time (Thanks for having us!)

On Memorial day, our friends, the Wallaces, came down for a quick visit. Sadly, we didn't get any picture with them. But I got a cute one of Jacob and Kayla.

Again with the being real thing. She looks adorable here. But just after this she had a major breakdown. She decided that she needed milk and we didn't have any. So she cried and cried and cried. We tried to stick it out and calm her down since we were with friends. But it didn't work. So Kayla and I went to the car to wait (and see if she'd fall asleep in her seat) while everyone else still browsed. But it didn't work. So Jacob said good bye for us and we left. Well we actually had to stop at the store, because we had plans for a memorial day cookout. (Jacob ran in and we stayed in the truck) And she cried the whole time. Then we finally got to the house, got her milk, and everything we needed for the party. And she was happy. She never slept, but she was happy. Good times ;)