My 22 Month Old

Am I serious? I can't believe she's that old and I can't believe its been that long since I've told you all the crazy things she does. Well where do I even start....

She finally started walking! At a ripe old age of 21 months she finally took off and hasn't looked back. One of the funniest things she does right now is walks 'quickly' and yells, "I'm running!" Or if you are holding her while running she yells it too.

She is a little parrot. Repeats everything that we say and more. Funniest things she's saying right now are, "You're welcome", "stop it", "go go go, go go go." (in rhythm) "I go go? I go go?" "Yeah, I know." "Hold it?"  I guess this list could go on forever cause I kinda think everything she says right now is bloody adorable.

She can: 
 -Say a prayer. Folds her arms, bows her head, mumbles lots of things I can't understand and says amen.
 -Learn your name and never forget it. Show off by naming everyone in pictures.
 -Go to a babysitters or nursery without crying at all. Actually asks to go to my neighbors house where she goes twice a week while I work. "Aubree please? Please?"
 -Play with anything except toys. Haha she just wants the vicks vapor rub and little shampoo bottles. Not too much to ask for right?
 -Throw the biggest tantrums I've ever even imagined...in the most public places. My mom says they look similar to mine when I was a babe...I gave birth to myself. Whoops.
 -Sit in time out for 30 minutes until she says sorry for hitting someone. Hitting is not nice, FYI.
 -Sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over and over and over. Its like the song that never ends. Have you ever noticed that it starts and ends the same way? Ok, It can go on for years...but its adorable.
 -Sing the Real song and clap her hands and yell Real. Which she does at random moments walking around the house. We've trained her well.

I'm mad at myself for not writing more as we go because I'm sure I've missed documenting things but life gets crazy and you have to handle things as you can. Even though our lives are nuts right now I'm in a really good place. It took me a minute to get here after passing through several other emotions but it does feel really good to be here. We're extremely blessed and I know that.

Missing

Yeah I've gone missing. Let me know if you find me. In all seriousness life has just been absolutely nuts and I'm exhausted. Nap or blog? Nap will win every time. Blah blah, you've heard it all before. Hopefully soon I'll regain some sense of normalcy which will definitely including 67 new blog posts ;] until then, follow me on Instagram because that is so much easier then blogging!

Kylaisms

My little entertainer.

She is...

-Scooting on her butt everywhere. Still a form of movement right? :]

-LOVING Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Dances and screams the second she hears it.

-Identifying all her toys. I tell her to get her ball or train and she know exactly what to go for.

-Saying, "dad, zinni, what's that, done, what's this, who's that, look (I think), yeah, hi, duck, tada, Yaya, drink" but still no mom!! And with some of these I'm guessing what's she's saying. She blabs her head off all day long and says things that sound like real things but doesn't repeat them so its hard to know.

-Gives high fives and 'pounds it'

-Terrified of flies (my kid..whoops)

-Getting into everything. Can't take your eyes off her for a second. I know it's about time though right (Has also fallen down the stairs once to date. One bloody nose and a very shaken mom later she was fine.)

-Angling her head down and looks her eyes up at you. It's absolutely hilarious but she does look slightly possessed. I have the funniest picture of her but can't put it on fbook because people will most likely think she's the devil. Not great. Haha
-Loving sitting outside watching every car pass by. With each one she asks "what's that?"
-Spitting out her food in which I reply, "naughty!!" And then take her food away. Blast this phase. She went down for nap without lunch the other day. Hopefully she'll learn.
-Obsessed with shutting and opening doors. She'll sit for hours on the floor going back and forth, open and shut with the door.

She does get more fun each day I feel like. Love her to the moon and back.

Meet the Team

Since we are now loyal Real Salt Lake season ticket holders we got to go to Meet the Team Night! I didn't know how it was going to work since it was my first time. The players are all divided up so the "hot" sigs are all at different tables. They all had times they would be at their tables and times they would be in the club with the club seats. So you had to come up with a pretty good strategy if you wanted to get the majors before they shut the place down. Also, there are rules. One item signed per ticket (so David and I could do two sigs because Kyla doesn't actually hold a ticket), and no pictures with the players because it takes too long. Blow. But I totally would be pissed waiting for other people so I understand.

We started with Beckerman because we're smart.

 

 He was so great. He 'got Kyla's toes' and she wouldn't even smile at him. I however was so star struck I did nothing but smile at him. "Good work Beckerman!!" nope, just stared and smiled and tried to get Kyla to smile. He was definitely my favorite of the night.

Next was Rimando.

He was quieter then I expected. I always see him yelling his brains out at the players with his hands flying around but he must have been star struck with me because he just smiled. I don't think he said a word.

Those were the only players I seriously cared about but of course we waited for several more. Espindola had a funny sense of humor. They were selling Beckerman bobble heads that didn't look anything like Beckerman and as Espindola walked past the poster he said, "Kyle?" haha we laughed. Kyla blew a ton of kisses to Luis Gil so apparently I should pay more attention to him. Johnson was so friendly and asked me if my arms were dying from holding Kyla. They were so we totally had a bonding moment! Love him.

Kyla was super cuddly when we first got there because she didn't take a good nap yesterday and was feeling all cute and tired. That quickly turned into meltdown city. We hand fed her ravioli in the line for Rimando and I learned that carrying her around the whole time was the stupidest thing I ever thought I could do. Who's going to teach my kid to walk? It was still a fun time.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

went up the water spout.

down came the rain and washed the spider out.

out came the sun and dried up all the rain,

and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

Allison Gray

Well its official. Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Ben Gray

The wedding is over! We drove down Friday 8/10 for the wedding dinner. Delicious Cafe Kelly (Rio) and a roast of the happy couple later we attempted to go to bed so waking up early would be a happy thing. Well Kyla had other plans. She was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night so we went to bed around 3 and got up around 7. We got ready and headed out with Wendy and Terry to drive to Manti. The sealing was beautiful and I got all teary eyed because this girl, who for all intensive purposes has been my little sister since I was 16 and she was 12, was suddenly a beautiful young lady and changing absolutely everything by getting married. Not that it's a bad thing but everything is now different. Ben hugged me in the sealing room and promised me he'd take the best care of her. We took pictures at the temple for a long time and then drove back to the cabin. Kyla was forced to take a nap whether she wanted to or not and David and I were more then happy to take one ourselves before the reception. We woke up a little after we had planned on leaving so we threw everything together and David probably drove 60mph down the canyon while I fed Kyla in the back seat. We arrived right before the reception started so we were just fine. We laughed and mingled the whole reception. We got Allie back for helping with our car at our wedding by decorating the crap outta her car. Then we went back inside for the bouquet and garter toss. Funny story. Ben tossed the garter and Allie's cousin Jake and his friend were both pretty amped on catching this bad boy. As they wrestled a little bit for it Jake's friend ending up backing into the table with the cake. Jake flipped over the table like a freaking ninja and along with Ted's daughter Josie caught the cake before it hit the ground. Just a couple big hand dents but could have been so much worse. Haha Funniest part of the night. Well....it might be tied with when Ben and Allie saw their car. Either way I had such a fun time.

Yes, that's baby powder.

Hahahahaha this picture is so amazing. So Jessica and I were joking about our shirts all weekend long. We said we looked like we were going to a 70's prom. So this is Jacob and Jessica's prom picture. Haha I love it so much.

Ben and Allie,
Congratulations! I'm so excited for you little lovebirds. Remember my advice to always make each other better. Ben, you better take care of my Allie but you better stand up to her too. Push her to be a better person. Allie, don't walk all over Ben. Be nice to him because its hard being married to a diabetic. (ask David any day of the week) Have conversations when you're both in sound minds (not tired, blood sugar high, or hungry) and remember that the best part is getting over the fight so work towards that instead of keeping the argument going. Its not who is right but what is right. Always remember why you got married and enjoy it. Laugh all the time and have fun date nights. Life is stressful but keep the fun in your marriage. Come and babysit your niece all the time ;] and have fun date nights with me and David. Love you both!

Star Gazing

There was a meteor shower while we were down in Orangeville for Allie's wedding. After the reception Stu, Kateka, David, and I went out next to the cabin and watched for shooting stars. I've seen maybe a couple shooting stars in my life but nothing compared to what I saw that night! We saw upwards of 30 shooting stars.They left huge streaks behind them because of how bright they were and even sometimes showed up with different colors like red or green. David took pictures (not being able to catch any shooting stars of course...) while Stu, Kateka, and I cuddled on a sleeping bag in the dirt. It wasn't comfortable at all. We laughed and talked and oooooo'd and aaaaaaah'd and I had such a good time. Eventually David joined us on the sleeping bag and all spooning together we watched the stars shoot across the sky. Even if he didn't catch any shooting stars David got some crazy good pictures of the night sky. No lights at the cabin make for AMAZING Milky Way shots. It was such a fun way for the night to end.

Rodriguez Family

David served in the Riverside, California mission. One of his areas was Moreno Valley which is where he met the Rodriguez family. He says he felt the spirit in their home right away despite them not being members. He taught Cynthia, (the mom) Natasha, and Audrea (the 2 oldest girls) the gospel lessons.  Hector (the dad) was not amped on the missionaries or the LDS church for that matter and it came to a point where Cynthia had to follow her husband and stop taking the lessons from David. David's companion gave up and told David that he needed to move on but David continued to visit the Rodriguez home to try to talk with them more. They wouldn't talk with him anymore but for some reason he couldn't move on from this amazing family. One day he felt prompted to visit their home and caught Cynthia outside in the driveway. He cornered her for lack of a better description and talked with her for an hour. He doesn't remember anything that he said during that conversation because the spirit did the talking. He does remember making the promise that if Cynthia came to church on Sunday, Hector would come with her. He remembers stressing so much about that promise because Hector was pretty clear on not being interested in this at all for himself or his family. On Sunday David saw the Rodriguez family walking in with Hector bringing up the rear. Hector told me he remembers seeing David and his companion playing around with some youth from the ward and thinking, "oh they're not so uptight." This began the change. Hector's car was having some problems so David, his companion, and a member of the Rodriguez's ward Brother Barnes came over to help him with it. Hector was so impressed that in their suits and ties they were willing to help this man that had never been welcoming to them. They went to the auto parts store and the guy working behind the counter was giving David and his companion dirty looks and staring them down as if he was unhappy they were in his store. Hector noticed and stepped in front of the workers glare and said, "hey, they're with me." Haha It had made Hector so mad that this man was judging them so he stood up for them and the worker totally backed off. Long story short they took the lessons, got baptized and sealed as a family, and then they came to our sealing when David and I got married. They are such an amazing family and inspire me everytime we see each other. David puts it best when he says,"the students have become the teachers." David and I have very strong testimonies in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but life gets the best of us sometimes and sleeping in becomes pretty tempting on Sundays. Cynthia said to me, "you don't want the devil in the bed next to you do you?" haha. No I don't. With them its so simple. You believe in the church and you do everything you need to. Including going to church when you're tired or whatever your vice may be. Their lives completely center around Christ, as it should, and I leave feeling closer to the Lord just from being around them.

Crocs

Interesting fact about Liz #487. I can't take any adult in Crocs seriously. I think they are so silly. I have had several conversations with my coworkers about Crocs because I work in the medical field and some people wear them. Whatever, if they want to rock them out I can't stop them but I also can't stop judging them. Oh well, their choice. Kids in Crocs is a whole different story. At work we've tried to decide what the cut off age is that Crocs are still ok and cute...we've yet to really settle on one but we're thinking about 7yrs old. When Grandpa Scott and Grandma Sumi were here for Allie's wedding they bought Kyla some cute swag including some Crocs. At first I thought, I'm a total hypocrite, and then I remembered that my child is WAY under 7 yrs old and can freaking rock these Crocs out no problem. She loves them and the second we put them on her she has to be holding and touching them. I know I'm slightly biased cause she's my adorable kid but I kinda die over the cuteness I think these baby Crocs hold. Judge for yourselves....

Kylaisms

Favorite things the little miss is doing:

-Getting food off her bottom lip with her teeth

-Rubbing her hands on my feet when I get out of the shower cause they're wet

-Thinking everything is a telephone and putting it up to her ear. Any toy, any phone you're willing to give her, even her hand if she has nothing else. Anytime I say "hello" her hand goes right up.

-Anytime I say "pretty" her hand jumps straight to her hair. She loves to 'comb' her hair while she watches me get ready so I always say 'oh that's pretty,  pretty girl'. Today at Chick-fil-a she would touch every chicken nugget piece to her hair before eating it. David and I were trying so hard not to laugh but it was so funny. I couldn't even look at her without laughing so I just ignored it after trying to tell her not to do that didn't work.

-Saying something that sounds like "tickletickletickle" all fast in her high pitched tone. David and I can't imitate it at all and she does it all the time. Her new jabbering. She cracks me up.

-'Loves' her toys. Gives them hugs and kisses. Mostly the soft ones like her 'love bug' or elephant but even her bath time frog got loves the other day.

-She gives kisses sometimes but only if she really feels like it. She was giving me kisses today at the mall but she would stick her tongue out everytime I would get close. Haha even if I could get her to keep it in the mouth was wide open.

-Playing games constantly. She's an entertainer for sure. She'll scrunch her eyes at you and if you do it back then she does it again. She loves doing that with Grandpa right now who is more then happy to oblige. Same with tilting her head to the side. All the time when I'm feeding her she'll look at me sideways and wait for me to tilt my head to the same side. Then she'll tilt the other way.

Every new stage she gets to is my new favorite. She's hilarious and pure entertainment most of the time. I never want to forget these little 'Kylaisms' cause they pass too quickly.

Thanksgiving Point

Cute Kellee invited Kyla and I to go to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point the other day for 2 dollar Tuesday. I was warned that it would be busy but I don't think I really understood until I saw it for myself. I was on the exit ramp for 15 minutes. Absurd. However once we got there we had a blast. Kyla had so much more fun then last time we were at the zoo. She must just be getting older because she was engaged the whole time and loving all the animals.

Peaks of the day:

Kyla saying "Duckties" when she saw the ducks in the pond. First time she said that and I died cause it was so cute.

Spending time with Kellee and her cute children. (yes. plural!) Little Zandon :]

Taking David lunch at work after. Fun to see him in the middle of the day and spend time together as a fam.

Cal-i-fornia!

Here we come! (member the OC song?)

We just got back from our Cali trip! It was a whole bunch of new experiences and fun. New experiences because traveling with kids is completely different (who didn't warn me) but we still had a blast and made lots of fun memories. I want to go through the days because we packed a bunch of stuff in and I want to remember it.

Wednesday--
We got up early thinking we'd make good headway before Kyla even woke up. Wrong. She refused to go back to sleep but luckily was still in pretty good spirits. We made it to Cali 3 hours earlier (with gaining an hour) then expected so we met Scott and Sumi at the hotel to go to a late lunch. We went to Captain Kidds which is a seafood joint where you pick your own fish and then pick how it's cooked. It was delicious. Then we drove to Moreno Valley to see the Rodriguez family. I'm going to do a separate post just about them but they are a very special family to us. We stayed the night with them and got our much needed fill. They are such an inspirational family that we left feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Love them so much.

Thursday--
We drove back into LA and the refreshed feeling quickly left me during that drive. Haha it's so sad because although that drive is super stressful but I shouldn't let stress effect me to that degree. Scott, Sumi, Jacob, and Jessica were waiting for us so we could take off for the beach. We went to Manhattan beach which was beautiful and freezing! David was so excited about the ocean that he just ran in and left me. I tried to keep up for a second but after catching my first wave in which I lost my hair bands and my swimsuit top I said "screw you ocean" and I stood on the shore with Jake and Jess and we just let our feet sink in the sand. It was fun and a whole lot less embarrassing. Kyla just sat in the beach tent that day. The ocean was too cold to put her little body in. That night we had the Real Madrid vs LA Galaxy soccer game. This was what initiated the trip to Cali in the first place and this is definitely what David and Jacob were looking forward to the most. The environment is a little different then Real Salt Lake. For instance, I swear Kyla was the only baby. People brought their kids but not babies. So no understanding when she started fussing :] It was a ton of fun and Kyla was only fussy at the very end. We also got quite the work out since we had to park like 3 miles away. Oh, and Real won. Duh.

Friday--
We went to Raging Waters San Dimas. I haven't been to a water park in forever. It was super busy but I had the best time there. Its one of the highlights of the trip for me. Lines were long but company was good so Jacob, Jess, David, and I just chatted and laughed. I only almost died on one ride so that was great too. They had a delectable treat that my mouth is watering thinking about right now. Picture this: a funnel cake with 3 scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream on top. Oh, I die. I definitely should have been eating that in a swim suit right? haha As I think back on the best moments on this little vacation I think about Kyla in the kiddie pool. David and I took her over to the kiddie area and just sat her at the edge of the pool. She splashed her head off and started turning around in a circle while sitting so she could splash in every area. As she'd be leaned over splashing David and I would splash water on her back and she would scream and laugh. What on earth made me happy before Kyla's happy screams? We went out to dinner that night at Birrieria Chalio which is a Mexican joint in Whittier. It was authentic and delicious. Oh no pictures from that day. Whats wrong with me! (Update. Scott put a couple pictures up so I'm adding them since 'Friday' looks so pathetic)

Saturday--
David and Scott were dying to go back to the beach so David struck a deal with Jacob. Jake isn't the biggest fan of the beach so on our way to Santa Monica Pier we stopped at a restaurant Jacob was dying to go to called The Oinkster. It.Was.So.Good! Probably my favorite meal. Then we made our way back to the ocean. Scott, David, and I spent over an hour body surfing and playing out in the ocean. Scott spent a lot of time trying to teach me how to really catch a good wave. All I really learned that day was that the swimsuit I was wearing was definitely not made for body surfing in the ocean. Jacob, Jessica, and I started rating the waves on how serious they were by how many hair bands and boob slips they were. For example, if the wave was a big one we'd say, "That was a 2 hairband/double boob wave", or "That was a no hairband but a left boob wave". Haha we're ridiculous. I eventually got sick of trying to wrangle my body against the ocean so I just laid out on the beach. I had been standing Kyla up on the beach all day but she didn't like the feeling of the sand on her feet so she would hold her feet straight out. Strong girl. When David finally came in we took her down to see if the wet sand would be any better. She LOVED it. She screamed the same way she did at Raging Waters when the wave would come in and hit her feet. This is my other favorite moment from this vaca. She walked her little feet off because she wanted to splash all the time. We just laughed and soaked up the amazing moment that it was. That night we went to Philippe the Original which has the best french dips in America. Too bad I don't like french dips so they had the best broccoli cheese soup in America! ;] Their cherry pie was pretty bomb too. Lots of pictures from this day! Trying to make up for Friday most likely :]

Sunday--
Goodbye day. We went to Denny's for breakfast with the group and then said our goodbyes. Luckily it was only goodbye for a couple days until Scott and Sumi were flying into Utah. Then we drove until we wanted to die. Kyla cried and fussed a little more on the drive home then the drive to California. Isn't that how it always is? You are excited to go on vacation and not to come home and you lose and hour coming home when you gain an hour going to the beautiful state. Finally made it home safe after what felt like forever. Vacation over.

Peak--Finding out my baby is a water baby through and through. I think we may need to get a pool pass or something! Watching Grandpa Scott and Grandma Sumi with the babe. They love her :]

Pit--Struggling with naps and sleeping with Kyla. Poor girls schedule was turned upside down. Naps consisted of the car rides and she slept in the bathroom in our hotel room! (don't judge us, she goes to bed a lot sooner then we do and that was the only place we could close her off from us. It was ventilated! haha)

We had such a great trip and I loved getting to spend lots of time with Scott, Sumi, Jacob, Jessica, and of course, the man I never see, David.