Priceless

Our good friends Shelly and Parker came over yesterday and we let the little girlies "swim" in the pool. They had so.much.fun as you can tell by these pics. Their faces are priceless. (I recommend clicking on the pics to make them bigger.) Thanks for coming over, guys!

Layla: "Thanks for making me wear this dumb hat, Mom."

 Layla: "At least we get graham crackers to dip in the pool water before eating. Yum!"

 Parker: "Look Layla, I can do Yoga!"

 Layla and Parker: "One, two, three ... all fall down!!!"

Girlies: "We fell down!"

 Layla: "Shelly, did you see that?! That was awesome!"

     Girlies: "Let's do it again!" 

 Layla: "Just as awesome the second time!!!"

 Parker: "I totally agree!"

 Layla: "Again! Again!" 

Silver Lake

I recently wrote down a "while we're living in Salt Lake" bucket list and last Sunday after church we crossed the first thing off : a trip to Silver Lake at Solitude Ski Resort up Big Cottonwood Canyon. (Not to be confused with the other Silver Lake, also up Big CC, that requires traveling down a dirt road, past Tibble Fork Reservoir, to get to. The one we visited is the closer one.)

It is so very beautiful there.

I thought Layla would love walking around the board walk, but for some reason, she requested that we push her in the stroller. Whatev.

We saw some beaver dams, but no beavers. We did see some ducks though.

We packed some sandwiches and such, but it was colder than we expected, so we opted for eating in the car amidst the beautiful scenery.

I felt like a bad mom because - while I did think to bring us all jackets and dress in long sleeves and jeans - I did not think to bring Layla a blanket and she kept asking for one and telling us that her hands were cold. Good one, Mamma!

We went in this little building to warm up. Layla liked looking at the displays.

She was just the right height for this one.

At least she managed to have fun despite being cold. And it sure beat sitting home bored!

On the way home we got stuck in the canyon for about 30 minutes while two helicopters and other emergency vehicles blocked the road. We could not see a car accident, if that's indeed what happened, and when we tried to look it up on the news we couldn't find any coverage on what actually happened, so it's still a mystery.

A few other things on our list: boating, Hogle Zoo, Kennecott Copper Mine (Mitch has never been and it's a must), Memory Grove, boating, frisbee golf (Holladay area), Millcreek Canyon, boating, mountain biking at Sundance, hiking above the capitol building to a place I call "the crematories," oh, and did I say boating? Here's to a summer full of fun!

Happenings

Here are some videos I took of Layla singing in the bath tub. It takes a lot of coaxing to get this stuff on video, so this is a precious commodity. This first video showcases Layla singing, "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam." In case you can't tell what she's singing, the lyrics are as follows:
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam,
To shine for Him each day,
In every way try to please Him,
At home, at school, at play.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, 
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I'll be a sunbeam for Him.

The second video showcases Layla singing, "Where is Thumbkin?" which her Grandma Bott taught her. She also sings a song my mom made up for her; we call it "Layla Lou." The lyrics are:

Layla Lou,

I love you,

Yes I do.

Woo, hoo, hoo!!!

Then she goes on to sing random bits of the sunbeam song, mostly "At home, at school, at play, Him!" which is her own special version of the song, I guess.

I should be better about recording what we do each week. This week Layla and I went to the Gateway Discovery Museum while Daddy painted another room in my parents' basement (only one more to go!). We also went and fed the ducks near my parents' house. I taught Layla to scare the "nasty pigeons" away by yelling, "Kaaa!" really loud and waving her arms above her head like a little mad woman. It was hilarious until other people showed up and I was actually slightly embarrassed. Ha, ha. At least they thought it was funny too. Seriously, pigeons are so gross. The rats of the sky, I say. 

Last night we went to a BBQ with some friends. We all had a blast, but no one had more fun than Layla, who had her first experience on a trampoline. Oh my goodness, I've never seen her giggle so much, and I've never come so close to having a heart attack between the trampoline and the firepit! Ha, ha. She was such a good little girl though and we didn't have any accidents. She LOVED the oldest girl there, Sammy, who is 7 years old I believe, and Layla insisted on being next to her / holding her hand / sitting next to her / bossing her around the entire night. At least Sammy was a good sport! We need to get together with that group more often for sure.

Before the BBQ we met up with Katie, who had just bought a new car. It's a 2011 Dodge Challenger and I dare say it is gorgeous!

I hope Katie doesn't mind me posting these pics, but I thought it was cute!

I might also add that never, before marrying into a "car family," did I ever think a car was "beautiful" or cool. I just didn't care about cars. But now Mitch has taught me that cars can be pretty. And Katie definitely bought a pretty one! She now has the coolest car of anyone I know. She even let Layla help her drive it. Lucky girl.

On a side note, I still think Layla looks a lot like Katie, which is a good thing.

Footings

Yay! We have footings on our foundation now! Hopefully this house building process will go faster than expected.

This is random, but tonight while grocery shopping at Winco, I thought to myself, "Oh, that little old woman looks just like a little old Russian bob I would have seen on my mission." ("bob" is short for "bobushka," which means "grandma" in Russian.) I got a little closer to her and her husband, only to hear them speaking Russian. Totally random. They were arguing over whether or not they should buy a can of evaporated milk - she wanted it and he said they didn't need it. Ha, ha. Then, I walked about two aisles over only to hear a completely different family also speaking Russian. Weird!

We tried to go to Lagoon yesterday. My mom works for a school district so she got us free entrance passes and free lunch tickets. Myself, my mom, Brock, and Natalie all drove up there and Mitch was going to meet us after his meetings. We decided to ride Wicked first, since it is the unanimous favorite for our family. We were all laughing (and crying) when the ride ended, and decided to go on it a second time (twice in a row!) since the line was so short. (I LOVE roller coasters!)

We then rode the Tidal Wave, which made all of us lose our stomachs despite sitting in the middle. We must be getting old! We rode the swings, which also made us feel old, and then waited in line for the Jet Star. Just as we got seated, it started raining and they told us we had to get off the ride. We waited it out in the Arcade, where Natalie beat Brock at Skee Ball, ha ha, and then used our free lunch tickets for some grub and funnel cakes. By this point, the temperature had literally dropped 20 degrees and we were freezing! Sadly, we went home and I told Mitch not to bother coming. What a bummer! At least we got to go on a few rides and it was all free. Thanks again, Mom! Maybe next year we'll have better luck. And Layla might be big enough for the kiddie rides next year.

And a special thanks to Mitch's padres for letting Layla sleep over. She had a blast and LOVES her new stuffed animal so much. We think it's a lemur, but she calls it a "Meemer" and took him everywhere with us today, fed him apples, and got really mad when we wouldn't let her take him in the bath with her. Ha, ha. Also, so sweet, when Layla got home my mom told her, "I missed you, Layla!" and Layla said, "Mamma, I missed her!" Oh, what a sweetheart, I'm so glad she missed me. I miss her like crazy every time she's gone. But I won't lie, the break is nice too!

She Must Have Been Bored

Here's a video of what Layla did while I was in the shower today:

and then she tried flushing it all down the toilet. I had to stop her before it flooded.

Prayers

Ever since we moved Layla into her toddler bed, we've been trying to get in the habit of praying with her before she goes to sleep at night. We typically tell her what to say and she repeats it. She must be catching on because here's how tonight's prayer went:
Lacey: "Dear Heavenly Father..."

Layla: "Dear Heavwey Fadder..."

Lacey:"I thank Thee for Daddy..."

Layla: "Thank you the Daddy. Thank you the Mammy (Grandma)..."

Then she looks at me and waits for me to repeat what she says. I oblige.

Layla: "Thank you the Grandpa."

Again, I repeat her.

Layla: "Thank you the Everybody."

I repeat, with a huge grin on my face, while trying really hard not to laugh.

Then she looks at me as if she doesn't know what to say next, so I told her to say, "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
She repeated it.

For being the hyper, hilarious, energetic little wild woman that she is, she truly does have such a sweet, kind little spirit! I love to see the way she smiles after we pray. I think she really can feel Heavenly Father's love for her while we are praying to Him. Warms my heart!

Today I played "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam" on the piano while Layla sung along. I was so impressed that she knew all the words and managed to sing with the piano. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll be my musically gifted child.

She also took a bubble bath today with the "princess bubbles" that Mammy Miles bought her. She had so much fun and kept telling us that the bubbles were "evweewhere." I also LOVE how she says the word, "over" like when Sesame Street gets "over," and she says, "ov air." Too cute!

I can't figure out how to get pics off the cell phone to turn! Does anyone know?

What You Doing Here?

This morning Layla caught Mitch and I kissing. She looked at us and asked, "What you guys doing here?" We told her we were kissing and she got the biggest grin on her face and said, "Ohhhh." Ha, ha.

I just love that whenever she doesn't know what I'm doing, she asks, "What you doing here, Mamma?" It is so crazy to me that I can carry on a conversation with her now. There really isn't anything she can't communicate to me. If she doesn't know the right word, she can describe it in a way that I can understand. Last night she said she was "reaching" for something. She knows more words than I realize. She definitely has the verb + "ing" down. She also recognizes that adding an "s" to the end of a noun makes it plural, but sometimes she takes it too far, like when she says, "sheeps," though I think that's pretty smart because she is technically applying the rule. English just has too many exceptions. Anyways, she is a great little talker now and it definitely helps eliminate a lot of frustration because she can understand us and tell us things.

Not to say she doesn't have her tantrums. Last week Mitch put her in time out for 2 minutes and it was HORRIBLE. To make a long story short, she got extremely upset that she was in time out and for the next hour refused to calm down. As in, total body flailing, screaming bloody murder, sort of tantrum. Wow, she's never been that bad before. She really has a hard time with taking punishments well ... I guess we'll have to work on that.

She has been going in the potty once a day for the last two days, so let's keep our fingers crossed it continues! I rented a silly little video about a little girl who learns to go on the potty. I decided I would sit down and watch it with Layla so that I could talk to her about it and get her excited. Before we sat down, I stuck a pair of Layla's new Dora big girl panties under my shirt. When the girl on the video earned her panties, I whipped Layla's out and excitedly said, "Layla, look! You get Dora panties!" to which Layla calmly replied, "No. No Dora panties."

Wow, I felt like I totally deflated. Like a balloon. She was not excited at all. What a bummer. I won't give up though. She will be wearing those Dora panties by the end of the summer if I haven anything to do with it. As Dora says, "Never give up! Never give up!" (I've seen way too many kids' shows lately.)

Welp, we're off to the museum so we can be out of Mitch's way while he works from home today. If we stay here, Layla will insist on sitting on his lap and typing on his computer, while saying, "Daddy working and Baby working!" It is pretty cute, but makes it hard for Mitch to get anything done.