September

This month has gone by faster than any recent month. I don't know why. Maybe because Mitch is so busy and it feels like we don't see him much at times ... at least his overtime ended last week, but then he had to go out of town this week. But he gets home today, yay! I shouldn't complain when I am truly thankful every day that he has a really good job. And someday he'll be done with school and will have more free time.

Anyways, things are good here. I started a small photography business that I am excited about. I truly enjoy it and the challenges of constantly trying to improve my skills. I have a long way to go before I am as good as I want to be, but it's a continual process, right? Mitch is so supportive and encouraging, which makes me even more excited about it. He's such a good husband.

Layla loves Minnie Mouse right now. All things to do with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, actually. It's cute.

Today she made up her own dance to one of the ABC songs on the internet. It is freaking adorable. On the main part of the song she waves her arms and twists her body, on the "Ooooh weee" part she jumps up and down, and on other parts she spins around. I love that it's an actual dance and that she sometimes makes me stand next to her and copy her moves. We were cracking up today doing her dance moves. I don't know how she comes up with this stuff, but I love every second of it.

Our house is coming right along. We love the way it's turning out. Can't wait to see it all done! I'm still nervous about the exterior, that was the hardest thing to pick. Hopefully we love it because there's no going back now.

We've met a few of our neighbors and they are all super nice. All of them we've met have a kid Layla's age, or really close to it. That makes me so very happy. Lots of couples our age, and lots of kids her age. Perfect. Now if we can just remember their names ... Mitch and I are both HORRIBLE at remembering names, so we might not have any new friends in the neighborhood for a while. Ha, ha.

I have strep throat again. Okay, maybe it's not technically strep, but it feels like it! This is like the 10th time I've had at least a mild version of strep since Layla was born. I've quite going to the doctor and started my own home remedy regimen of IbuProfen, gargling salt water or Lysterine or hydrogen peroxide (that last one is nasty!), and lots of sleep, which is hard to find the time for usually. It's always my right tonsil, and sometimes my left, too. I never had problems with them as a kid, which is why I still have them, it's honestly only been since I had Layla. Weird, right? My tonsils swell, get really red, and I get nasty white spots on them. It's really gross. I've only heard horror stories about having your tonsils removed as an adult though, so I guess I have to put up with this. At least it doesn't always keep me down; I still manage to do a few things, I just feel like crap while I'm doing them. The worst part is not being able to kiss Mitch or Layla. They're both so fun to smooch!

I Say a Little Prayer for You

Layla is starting to get better at praying on her own. I had to record tonight's prayer because it was especially hilarious. We decided to have a family prayer, so we all three knelt at her bedside to pray. It went like this:

Me: "Layla, how do we start the prayer?"

Layla: "Dear Heavewy Fadder, fank you for Mamma and Daddy, and Mammy and Grandpa."

Me: "Thank you for ..."

Layla: "Skittles and Snickers*, and my two milks, and the blue sky, and the tomatoes."

Me: "Please bless ..."

Layla: "Me to sleep good tonight. I love Thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, aaaaMENNNN!!!"

Oh my, is that cute or what?!? Mitch and I were both holding in the giggles for sure! Then we realized that when we pray with her separately we both tell her to say, "Please bless me to sleep good tonight." Ha, ha. We can use all the help we can get in that department!

*For the record, Skittles and Snickers are Mitch's parents' cats, whom Layla adores. And she mentioned tomatoes because she loves going outside every evening with my mom to see if the tomatoes are ready. And even more than that she loves the salsa that my mom makes from the tomatoes. She loves spicy food. It must be because she has some of my Panamanian blood running through her veins.

Mitch and I went to the Brigham City temple dedication today. My mom was kind enough to watch Layla while we attended. We told Layla we were going to the temple dedication and while we were gone Layla told my mom, "I want to go see my mom at the temple!" She has also told me, several times, that "Mamma and Daddy get married in the temple and I'da get married in the temple!" Oh, makes my heart happy.

We have been having a rough time getting Layla to take a nap lately, to say the least. In her defense she is getting her last two molars right now (yay, no more teething!) so I think they're to blame. I've started to get frustrated the last few days when she and I are in her room and she's not alseep after over an hour of the nap time routine. We have this book called, "The Happiest Mommy Ever" that my grandma gave me for Mother's Day one year and it really is the cutest book; I highly recommend it for mothers. Well, whenever I say anything like, "Layla, you need to go to sleep, I'm starting to get frustrated," or, "Layla, go to sleep, I'm starting to get mad," she always gets out that book and says, "No, Mom, you're not mad, you're happy! Here, read 'The Happiest Mommy Evvvverrr.'" Oh my goodness, talk about a guilt trip! From a two year old! Makes me feel like a horrible mom for making her stress and worry that I'm not happy. And it actually does cheer me up to read that book and she eventually does fall asleep. The last few days have been better so hopefully we're over this  hump and can go back to normal nap times.

Friends

Our good friends, the Burts, are moving back to Massachusetts. Or "Mass" as they call it. They were here on a one-year work assignment with Mitch's company, so we knew it was coming, but it is still sad. I got to become good friends with Sue over the last year, Layla loves their daughter Ryleigh, and Mitch and Jeremy are not only co-workers, but friends as well.

Sue, Shelly, and I took our girls to Antelope Island for one last play group before the Burts move. We saw so many animals! Antelope, buffalo, and coyotes. And I only got one mosquito bite, though it was a nasty one and swelled up ginormous and actually hurt really bad for three days afterwards! But I digress. We got a few cute shots of the little girlies together and enjoyed seeing the sights.

I love how they're each looking at a different camera since
all 3 photo-happy mommies were shooting at the same time.

Contemplating life.

We'll miss you guys!

Over the weekend we met up with the Burts in Park City for a farewell dinner. We went to Main Street Pizza which was delicious! The girlies had fun and so did we. As a parting gift we gave them a calendar with pics of Utah National Parks, a cookie cutter in the shape of Utah, and a copy of The Book of Mormon. We did not expect anything from them, but they gave us a very thoughtful gift: a door knocker with our name engraved on it. I cannot wait to put it on the front door of our new house! It will match the door handle perfectly and I know it will look great. I'll have to post a pic of it here so they can see it once it's installed.

We would have loved to spend the rest of the evening browsing the shops of Park City with them, but I had an opportunity come up last minute to be the photographer for a green screen at a bar mitzvah, in Park City, nonetheless. A friend that I served my mission with works for a company who hires out DJs, photobooths, and green screens and his photographer bailed last minute. He new that I'm starting to take pics for people, so he asked me to help him. (I was hesitant at first, too nervous to commit, but my supportive husband believes in me and he talked me into saying yes. And I am so thankful he did. I wouldn't have the courage to move forward with this without his support.)

It was quite the experience! My first bar mitzvah and my first official photography session. Shooting for a green screen was fun because I got to help pose people according to which background they chose. After we took the pic, Spencer would photoshop them into the backgrounds that he and the bar mitzvah boy had designed. Some of them were hilarious! It was great to catch up with Spencer, and I had fun, and it was reconfirmed to me why I want to work my tail off to start my own photography business. I love it and it brings people happiness. With the money I earned from this gig, I was able to pay my tithing and have enough left over to buy a new Canon, 50 mm, f-1.8 lens, which I am SO excited about! It should be here this week and I can't wait to start shooting with it!

But I digress. Again. Back to the Burts. They are going to come visit as Jeremy has to come back on work-related business. Mitch and I are secretly (or not so secretly) hoping they will decide to move back permanently. But either way, it is nice to know that we will see them again. And if they don't move back, then Mitch and I will definitely go spend some time their way!

We will miss you guys! We wish you all the best on the path your lives take you next!

My Little Buddy

Every day Layla says things that make me laugh. I am loving the age she is at and the conversations we have.    Sometimes she tells me she wants to go to school (because she knows that our family friend Rhonda goes to school, and even though Rhonda lives in California, Layla speaks of her often and wants her to come visit us again). I respond by telling Layla that she can't go to school yet because she's "my little buddy." (Completely selfish of me, I know, but I can't help it. She's just so awesome.) While she lets me and Mitch call her any nickname we please, if anyone else calls her anything but "Layla" she will say, "No, I'm not (fill in the blank), I'm Layla!" It's pretty funny.

This is Layla. 

She LOVES nursery and gets so very mad at us when we go to pick her up after church. Dirty looks and everything! We had our first official Family Home Evening with Layla the other day. It went better than I would have thought and now she knows that she, and everyone, is a child of God. :)

A granola bar is a "gorilla bar."

Being attacked by geese at Wheeler Farm.

 Instead of saying that something is "his" she says it is "hims." For example she'll say, "Wook at Harvey! Wook at hims nose!" It's so funny, and even though we correct her, she keeps on saying hims.

 

The other day she and Mitch were eating lunch at the table when she got up and told Mitch, "I'da be right back." ("I'da" is another thing Layla made up that she uses quite often.) Then she went in the bathroom to sit down on her little potty. When Mitch came in she told him to go out and shut the door. He did and she went pee pee in the potty. What the?!? The potty thing is still totally random, but I'm hoping that someday it will just happen ... she also tells us "I'da be right back" quite often now: whenever she goes upstairs to visit Mammy and Grandpa, when she goes in her room to get a new toy, etc.

Wheeler Farm. Lame, but free.

Come on, Mitch. Surely you can make a better silly face than that!

If we offer her something she likes, she'll often say, "That sounds great!" in a very excited voice. When I rinse the shampoo out of her hair she says, "That feels great!" or "That feels better."

Wheeler Farm.

She can now tell us the sound that each letter in the alphabet makes. She can also name one, if not two or more, words that start with each letter and will often go through the entire alphabet saying the letter and words that start with that letter. She's not even 2 1/2 yet. Little Miss Smarty Pants. Her memory seriously amazes me. I really need to start her on some sight words.

Last, but certainly not least, Layla learned how to do somersaults this month! She calls them kartwheels, but it's really a somersault.

Somersault buttcrack.

When our family friends from California were visiting in June, Jenna was teaching Rhonda how to do kartwheels, so Layla insisted that she join. Here is a video from that day:

Now, just a few months later, Layla has learned to do a true somersault:

I sure love my little buddy's guts!

Brick

We are surprised at how fast our house is being built. Everyone we've talked to has horror stories about how the builder told them 4 months and it was really 6 months, etc. Our builder has told us that our home will be completed by November 17th (the Saturday before Thanksgiving, BTW); however, we're thinking it may be some time in October.

They put up the brick last week. It looks great! We actually need to go take another pic of the brick, because the mortar has lightened up so much that it already looks different from this picture. (I actually like the way it looks now compared to this pic, but the pic will at least give you an idea.)

We are having Hardie installed above the brick. Hopefully they will get to that soon. Also, the shingles are delivered and sitting in packages on the roof, so we're hoping they will nail them down tomorrow. The inside is completely sheet rocked with mud and tape. Seems like they should really start cruising now.

Bonus room above the garage.

View of the great room looking down from the bonus room.

Master bedroom. Where all the magic happens. Ha, ha.

Building a home is stressful though, not gonna lie. They have made mistakes and we have to call and tell them to fix it, which they usually do the next day, but it's still a pain feeling like we have to babysit them. Don't get me wrong, we still feel that we have a great builder and we will have an awesome home, but when the builder hires out several different people to do the job, it seems like things get lost somewhere in translation. At least they are good about fixing things and it hasn't been anything major. Now we JUST CAN'T WAIT for it to be done!!! So excited! (But I will miss all the perks of living at my parents'! Definitely more perks than disadvantages! Maybe we should just live here forever ...)

Boating

On Saturday Layla and I were able to go boating with my parents. Mitch had too much homework and had to change the oil in his car (boo!) so he wasn't able to come. Actually, I think it was nice for him to be able to do his homework in a quiet house, without Layla insisting on sitting on his lap and typing on the "compuuuudddder."

We had a blast boating! This time we just stayed on the boat the entire time, and Layla did way better than I had anticipated, especially considering that I was a bad mom and didn't bring much for her to do. She did have her shovels

and found my mom's Boggle game, which she loved because it has letters on it. Of course.

She also spent some time in the tube

and a lot of time on the deck of the boat dipping her feet in the water (until I made the mistake of telling her that the fishies were going to nibble on her toes, then she got scared).

The weather was great: sunny and just warm enough that you don't have to get in the water to cool off, but you could if you wanted to without getting too cold. In other words, it was perfect. Oh, and the ride up Parley's Canyon was stunning with all the colorful fall leaves.

We ate way too much and eventually Layla fell into a food comma on our way back into the marina. She napped for a bit in the cuddy and I managed to take her out of her Incredible Hulk padded swimming suit, change her diaper, and get her dressed without waking her up! She had too much food and too much fun I guess!

Thanks Mom and Dad, once again, for driving us up there, feeding us, pampering us, and showing us a good time. You guys sure know how to have fun!

Traveling

We did a lot of driving in the car this weekend. On Saturday morning we packed up and headed to Idaho for Jordan and Tenley's wedding luau.

Finally, after driving for 5 hours and eating nasty Carl's Jr, we arrived at Jordan and Tenley's house.

We had never been to their house before and it was very nice. The luau was good and it was nice to meet Tenley's family. That night we got some Coldstone ice cream and Natalie introduced us to Words With Friends, which I will now be playing a lot. We also played with Jordan's dogs, Gunner and Ruger.

Isn't Ruger the cutest puppy you've ever seen? He's 10 weeks old and he and Gunner are going to be best buds. So, you know those pics where the dad is holding the newborn baby but all you see is the baby in the dad's hands? Check this out:

Ha, ha!! Anyways, the trip was pretty uneventful, which is good. Layla was an angel and did way better than we thought. She is so much fun. She kept telling everyone at the luau that it was, "a nice sunny day!" I seriously don't know where she comes up with this stuff. And, we played a game like on Dora the Explorer where we listed off two places we had to go to before arriving at our final destination. For example, we'd say, "First we have to go past the big mountain, then over Rattlesnake Pass, then we'll be at Jordan and Tenley's house! Say it with me: big mountain, rattlesnake pass, Jordan and Tenleys' house!" She LOVED it and told everyone about Rattlesnake Pass. It was hilarious. She also made Mitch and I sing songs while we drove, which was also funny.

We stopped at Mitch's parents' house on the way home from Idaho to celebrate Kathy's birthday. We gave her a Kindle and I think she was quite surprised and happy about it. For dessert Kevin busted out some of their home-made Oreo cookies of goodness and Katie and I both let out an excited little yell at the same time. That gave us a good laugh. But really, if you tried their cookies you would yell too.

We finally got to bed only to wake up early to head out again today, this time to the Brigham City temple open house. My dad did a lot of the woodwork in that temple so we wanted to see what he had done. (The three of us, my parents, Mitch's parents, my grandmas, my aunt and uncle Munk, and Brock went.) While I will say it was absolutely breathtaking, I will also add that it was a horrible idea to go on Labor Day. We seriously waited for over 3 hours just to get inside! It was so crowded. Layla was so good though, especially considering it was her nap time and she kept telling us she was tired.

So, in the temple they ask you not to speak, and if you do need to speak, to do so in a whisper. Of course Layla refuses and when we tell her to whisper she says, "No! I talk louder!!!" in a really loud voice.  The best part of the tour was when we were in the baptistery and Layla got so excited about the "cows" (the baptistery sits on the backs of 12 oxen). She kept saying, very loudly, "Look, Mamma! Look at the cows, Mamma! The cow says, 'Moooo!' Mooooooooooo!!!!!" Oh my goodness, it was SO funny. (My initial reaction was panic and embarrassment, but that only lasted 1.4 seconds and then I realized it was hilarious and only half-heartedly encouraged her to whisper. Ha, ha.) Also, she was sure to point out Jesus in every painting we saw of him, which made me happy.

The temple is gorgeous and I would love to go back someday and soak it all in. I love the peace I feel there, even just while walking through on a tour. Each time I go to the temple I leave feeling so much lighter; like I have been given more understanding and a better perspective on life, and I leave feeling so happy and full of peace. It is amazing and I am thankful for a place where I can go and feel close to the Savior and my Heavenly Father. 

I am also very thankful that Layla was an angel this weekend with all of our traveling. She cracks me up. And tonight she went on the potty twice, one of which was poo poo (sorry if that's TMI, but #2 is harder for kids to learn to do in the potty, so I was extra proud). She told us she needed to go, without any prompting from us whatsoever. Hopefully we can keep it going. I also need to let my friend Nicole (Oakley's mom) know that after Layla went in the potty, I told her that her friend Oakley goes in the potty. Layla has now decided that she wants to be "a big girl like Oakley and go in the potty," so next time the little girlies hang out I need to remember to remind Layla of what a "big girl" Oakley is. I'm hoping it will encourage her to become potty trained.