Tis the season

I haven't been very good at updating the blog lately, so let me try to catch up a little bit.
We went to see Santa at the festival of trees. I was a little worried that Kenley wouldn't want anything to do with him so I warmed her up to the idea by showing her Santa on the computer and we practiced telling him that she wanted a Dolly.
She LOVED him!! She was all smiles and even giggled when she saw him.
When Santa asked her what she wanted she said "Dawee puhweez!" and when she was given a candy cane -"Dank-oo".
I was so proud!!
Then she proceeded to destroy said candy cane, as well as her white top. (Thank goodness for Shout)




She's growing up so fast! It's so much fun!
She's reaching her "Terrible twos" and is becoming more independent.
Sassy pants tells me "No!" and "Top!" (Stop) regularly.
She's a really good eater, i'm amazed at the amount of food this dainty girl can put away.
She rambles on and on with stories that must be amazing, i just cant understand her. (I think she's speaking Chinese, yep that must be it)
She's learned to open and start the dishwasher.
She'll throw her toys out of their basket only to sing the clean-up song and put them back. She bobs around singing "Mean-up, mean-up, mean-up".
Elmo is her most favorite thing. She will dance around excitedly when he's on TV and yell "EHMOO! EHMOO!"
I'm amazed when she recognizes that little monster character everywhere. Even in the most abstract displays of him!
She's in a "baby-loving" stage, she wants to hug and kiss all the babies she sees :) Which naturally prompts many a cheek smooch from me, she puts up with it.

I will be posting again soon about all the toys she will be spoiled with this christmas! We actually have to move around some furniture to make room for all of it!
Lucky girl :)

Giving Thanks

I feel like a blog post isn't complete without a picture, so here's Kenley playing in the snow for the first time this year:

She calls it "Nooowuh" in a reverent sort of way.

Isn't she beautiful?!

It's that time of year again when I really need to acknowledge all of my many blessings.

And there are a LOT to mention:

Discovering the cause of my migraines, and fixing it!

Boots

The fact that our cars have lasted as long as they have

Elmo

Discount supplements

Having so much family living so close

Heated seats

Part time work!

Awesome day care

Big hugs and kisses from Kenley

Time for my projects

Learning new and convenient technology

Temples all around

My sweet baby to share everything with

My man-child to make things more fun

Now i'm going to go eat my weight in mashed potatoes and then pass out in a turkey coma.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pa-weees!

This Halloween, we took Kenley trick-or-treating for the first time. She still didn't quite understand what was going on, so we only took her to about 5 houses.

She insisted on holding onto a piece of candy in one hand, and one of our hands in the other.

We practiced ahead of time saying "Trick or treat" and "Thank you".

She was really good about saying "Pa-weees!" every time.

But once that door would open, she would freeze up, and say "Thank you" when the door was safely closed again.

Kenley thought each time she had to trade her candy for a new piece, so she would put the piece that was in her hand in the dish before picking a new one.

My dad came over to take Kenley around his office and he had white paint all over his bald head and face. Kenley heard her "Buhpa" and got excited, but once she saw him she refused to leave the safety of my legs.

She was totally fearless with all the scary stuff going on and would only look a little confused.

I think we had more fun showing off our cute baby rainbow bear than it was for Kenley.

She was the cutest plush-cheeked baby girl i've ever seen!

Punkin

Today we went to the pumpkin patch.

It was gloooorious!

Kenley thought all the pumpkins were seats.

There was a pit full of corn for kids to play in.

(And adults in touch with their inner child)

Aunt Kari and uncle Jonathan came too

A small zoo-like area was amazing to Kenley! The giant pig was making all sorts of crazy noises.

It was super fun

Love-fest

BJ has been kind enough to bring it to my attention that I am totally, completely and disgustingly in love with my baby girl.

But, how can you not be? I mean, look at this girl!! She's awesome!!

Haunted hay ride with creepy noises? No problem!

Ask me what a chicken says. I dare you. "Bawk bawk bawk!"

Then i'll giggle, cause I know i'm hilarious.

Lolli and Kenley, BFF's

A swing is called "Wwweeeee!!"

Touchdown!!

We're number 1!!

................

I rest my case.

Zzoooo!!

Earlier this week it snowed... snowed!! And I panicked that I wasn't going to be able to go to the zoo this year.

So we packed up the car with coats and blankets, put on our warm hats and went to see the chilly animals.

Uncle Evan had his own stroller to push.

And yes. We played chicken.

Kenley ran all over that place and was amazed with the giraffes.

(See above right face for said amazement)

There was an exhibit of paintings done by the monkeys at the zoo.

Kenley ran her little self into exhaustion! She slept sweetly through all the noise, and transitions from stroller-to-car and carseat-to-crib.

On a side note......

I had thought that having my own baby would lessen some of my baby crazies.

But it has, in fact, gotten much worse.

Having my own sweet baby (especially such a healthy, lovey, giggling, cuteness smuggler) has turned me into mush.

I swoon over squishy babies.

I squeal in a high pitched baby voice over amazing stunts, like.... rolling over.

It's actually very annoying. My friend Shmeg even makes fun of me... which, if you know her, means i'm pretty ridiculous.

Also, Kenley is in the "Baby loving" phase. She sweetly says "Baby!" and wants to touch every baby she sees, everywhere we go.

Which of course I love, (because how cute can she get?!) and makes my baby-craze soooo much worse.......

Please forgive me when i tell you for the tenth time how adorable/sweet/smart your baby is..... I think it's a sickness, really.

Plus, your baby is really cute.

Paragliding

Ever since the first time I saw those colorful parachutes at point of the mountain, i've imagined what it would be like if I ever got up the guts to do it.

And it was so much more fun than I imagined!

Here's BJ taking off.

It's the coolest sensation to just float up off the ground!

I really wanted a picture of me up in the air but I had the camera in my pocket, this was the best I could do.

(My instructor strapped to my back laughed at me when I said that "I shoulda worn cuter shoes")

I'm mildly terrified of heights and was more than a little nervous. I was afraid I would feel like I was constantly falling, but we just floated along at a surprising speed.

It was heavenly.

BJ's instructor was really funny, and did some tricks that woulda made me puke.

I asked him how he liked having a guy straddling him for a half hour.

He said: "I got his number. That's not weird, is it?"

Beyonce the metal chicken

For some reason, for the past week BJ has been irritating me more than he normally would.

I can't really put my finger on why every syllable he utters = nails on a chalk board.

A few things have just gotten under my skin more than they would normally.

Like those socks he tosses half-heartedly and lets lie next to the hamper.

Or yelling at the football/xbox game.

I promise i'm a really nice person and haven't snapped at him or been (very) irrational! And I can't be the only wife who (very rarely) feels like this???

But yesterday morning, after a week of feeling irritated, I had my boxing gloves ready for a fight, I just didn't know what it was about yet.

We were getting ready to head to a birthday party at chuck-E-cheese, and I had pulled out clothes for Kenley.

After her bath, to my delight, BJ dutifully took her to get dressed. I walked into the living room to find them in matching outfits, with the clothes I had set out still resting on the arm of the couch.

They were in matching football jerseys.

I promptly threw a fit and demanded she be changed into the clothes I had sanctioned acceptable for our outing.

To which BJ responded by smugly snapping the final button in place on her top.

So naturally, this propelled me into a rage.

(Because who wouldn't be pissed that a loving husband got their toddler in clean clothes that would probably only stay that way for another hour at best??)

I stomped away to finish getting myself dressed and fumed for a few minutes.

That's when I heard the shower.

It was my chance!

I rushed into the living room and coaxed Kenley to let me re-dress her.

When i was done, I hid the mini jersey.

Yep.... really did hide it like a little kid.

I all but stuck my tongue out at BJ when he saw what she was wearing.

I got the cold-shoulder all the way to chuck-e-cheese, and I sat silently listing reasons why I was right and justified in my behavior.

But I couldn't really come up with a good reason why to get into a fight over it. I suddenly felt really dumb, childish, and ridiculous!

And I actually started laughing! Cracking up that THIS was the biggest problem in my life right now, and I had created it!

BJ looked sideways at me, i'm sure wondering if his wife had completely lost it, and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

I apologized and explained, and lost all feelings of irritation. (At least til my blood sugar dipped again)

I hope next time I wont be so bull-headedly stubborn and pick my battles a little better.

While thinking about picking my battles, I came across this story that made me pee-laugh cause it sounds like a fight we had a few months back about toilet paper :)

Hey, at least I didn't put a giant metal chicken in your way!

No more "Achy Breaky Heart"!

I broke down tonight after weeks of debating.... and cut Kenley's hair...... It was time for the mullet to go!!

Had to include this pic -it's what she does every time she sees a camera :)

Now look!! No mullet and I think it looks great!

The only thing I worry about now is that she wont grow in any more curls. The mullet part of her hair had sweet little curls that I hope come back when her hair gets long again.

I kept one of those curls to paste into her baby book, that's what good moms are supposed to do right?

Lookie!

I have been wanting a beach cruiser for soooo long! And a couple of weeks ago BJ saw a listing for this beauty on KSL which was within our (super frugal) budget.

So of course i needed it. It needed a little sprucing up though. Some paint and new hardware is well within my scope of capabilities.

(Notice the ugly purple sparkly-ness and can you see the cherries??? ew.)

And now it looks like this!!:

You're jealous I know.

I'm trying to finagle a way to make the baby seat sit back farther so I don't crowd Kenley, but i'm in love! I must work hard to get some good use out of it before it gets too cold. This'll be fun!!

Baby faces

While admiring my giggling little girl, a lady from church told me that Kenley was "Losing her baby looks". Which made sad! But she's right, my beautiful baby girl is becoming a beautiful toddler-ette. I'll just have to learn to accept it.... sigh....

This is us waiting for the bath water to warm up and passing the time most effectively :) Pay no attention to the ratty t-shirt I'm wearing. Every day when I get home from work I immediately get dressed in baggy sweats. Sexy right?

Daredevil

My dad's company had one of their annual shin-digs, and this time we got to tag along! It was up snowbird where we got to ride the alpine slide, zip line, chair lifts, bounce house, and chase those weird fat chipmunks around. Kenley LOVED it!

She couldn't quite stay upright in the bounce house, but kept giggling the entire time.

I kept her in her monkey backpack but didn't need it most of the time since she loves her uncle Evan and Grandpa so much. She actually demanded that they both hold her hands constantly.

Kenley got to go down the alpine slide twice. While waiting for our sled to go down the first time we stood watching as people took off down the hill, and she would cheer and clap her hands in delight. When I took her down first she kept yelling "Wooooaa!" and giving me big grins.

The second time she went with BJ and she had the most serene grin on her face the whole time, almost like it was even a little boring!

She's going to be quite the daredevil :)

The 16 Month Itch

I've heard of this phenomenon before, but never thought i'd be so stereotypicaly mormon and want another baby so fast. But i've got the 16 month itch!

Every month that passes, I think of how old Kenley will be if I got pregnant right away. And then slightly panic for 3 reasons:

1. I want my children to have siblings close in years

2. I want to be done making babies by the time i'm 30

3. I remember how hard and painful pregnancy was and panic at the thought of doing it again!

My sister and I are 5 years apart and we're really close. But it's been difficult to always be in such different stages in life. And I want Kenley to have a sister!

I can't wait to be able to invite another baby into our family, but sometimes that horrible nagging part of my mind pops up and makes me wonder if I would be able to give as much love and attention to another baby as I have been able to with Kenley.

Family is so important to me and becoming a mom has helped me to look at life differently. My older brother and I have never been close, or even agreed on fundamental things. But Kenley is my first baby, she's the one that made me a mother, and she will always hold a special place for giving me that gift. And now, with that knowledge i've gained, I see my older brother through the eyes of my mom. It's helped me to gain understanding and make peace with my dysfunctional family relationships.

And if "what goes around, comes around" is the case with my daughters then bring it on! Because I still maintain that I was a treasure of a daughter, Mom ;)

Obsessions lately

Lately I have been obsessed with following fashion and craft blogs. Especially the ones with tutorials on re-vamping or creating new clothes. I have a sewing machine that I need to learn to use better, so i'm searching for inspiration.

In my search i've come across outfit ideas that i'm in love with.

I am obsessed with this mustard-yellow color. Especially when paired with navy blue. I really want a pair of these yellow tights.

When I was little I had a jean jacket that I loved so I never really thought wearing one now would help me look like a woman instead of a girl. But the look of a jean jacket and a maxi dress is really growing on me, plus i'm a jacket girl for the structure they supply.

Every winter I cry for the warmth and the sun, once it comes and i'm sweating and uncomfortable I mourn for the cool autumn weather. I love the comfort and style of layering. Boots and scarves are my favorite accessories, it's true love.

I've been craving a pair of white jeans. I think they're so stylish and versatile. The only problem is finding the perfect fit-and-fabric pairing that won't show the line of my G's or my cellulite. (yikes!)

I LOVE shoes. Who says diamonds are a girls best friend? My shoe size has been the same for over twelve years and it wont change! I really like a little bit of style that's mens-wear inspired, and I would wear these brown boots every day if they were mine. And the yellow ones? I have no idea what to wear with them but i'm so in love it doesn't matter, right?

Also i've noticed that, without meaning to, i've been dressing Kenley and I the same some days. For example; if i'm wearing my plaid button down top, so is she. Or if I feel like dressing up, i'll get K all dolled up too.

Some days I see myself in her so much it feels like i've been cloned. Or..... maybe it's wishful thinking. I just want her to be my bff, is that too much to ask?

RunnerCross 2011

I did my first actual 5k ever!

It was a relay and an obstacle course. We ran through a dirt course over hills, logs, fences, down a slip-n-slide and through paths of very sticky heavy mud.

It made me realize how out of shape I am and inspired me to really kick my own butt to get in shape for our triathlon this September.

By the end my entire body was caked in mud. It was the closest I've ever come

to looking tan. Kenley even loved watching and cheering with everyone. It was so funny watching her jump every time someone would cheer then see her face light up, scream in delight and clap her hands. Loved it!

I forgot my camera so the only shots we got were from BJ's phone but hopefully you can see the exhaustion and layers of earth all over us.