Kayla 15 Months

 Well, Kayla is now 15 months old. She is turning into the funniest little thing. She's got quite the little personality and it shows a bit more each and every day. She had a checkup the other day. She's totally healthy and growing so fast. She's gained almost 4 lbs in the last 3 months! I feel like the minute she switched from breast milk to whole milk, she chunked up a bit more. Kayla is 24 lbs and 30 in. She has maintained the 50th% for height but jumped up to the 65th% for weight from the 50th%. 

I sure love this happy cheesy baby of ours!

Kayla is full of energy and is officially not a baby anymore. She doesn't have the time or patience to cuddle for more than a second unless its right before bed time. She is the friendliest baby around and waves to everyone she sees. Her favorite word is also 'Hi'. Sometimes she gets a look of confusion when people don't notice her waving and don't wave back, like, "Why won't they wave at me?" She also laughs all the time. Brett calls her Happy because she's always smiling and laughing. She courtesy laughs a lot too, which is awesome. 

Waving at strangers again :)

Church is getting more and more interesting. I miss the days when she could fall asleep in my arms. Now she is constantly snacking or roaming during the last 2 hours of church. There are a couple other babies and the 3 of them are entertainment for all. One lady asked me in Relief Society if she ever cried, because she'd never heard her. I assured her she does and moments later, she tripped over someone's bag and slammed her head into the chair. Now, the whole building has heard her cry. She really is pretty quiet through church meetings. She just won't sit still so I'm spending more and more time in the halls during Sunday School and Relief Society. I'm counting down until she's old enough for nursery!

Kayla has to go to so many church meetings and activities with me
and she is usually quite a champ. During the Women's Broadcast, I
was taking pictures of all the ladies during dinner. When I asked these ladies,
they thought I meant could I take their picture with Kayla (all was in Spanish),
so I said yes and they loved it! She wasn't too sure though. :)

Kayla is practically running now, especially if she is chasing Iosepa around the house. She's also a pro at playground jungle gyms and is pretty fearless when it comes to slides and climbing up and down, but lately has been hating the swings. Go figure. 

Kayla LOVES Iosepa!

She is always hugging him and he doesn't like it, but I asked
him to hug her and this was it. :)

She is talking more and more each day. I love seeing her focus and try to repeat words after I say them. Its like she's willing her little mouth to do what she wants it to. Her vocabulary list includes: Hi, Daddy, kitty, Jesus, Momma, bunny, Thank You, ball, uh-oh, What's that, where'd it go, Sepa (Iosepa), baby, tickle-tickle, and flower. She's great at pointing at pictures of other everyday items when I ask her to. I just love watching her little brain soak everything in.  She's great at nodding yes or shaking her head no to questions. We can ask her anything and she almost always responds appropriately whether she understands or not. Sometimes it's hilarious because she looks so serious and pensive before responding with her head movements.  Being a parent is so fun!

Friendly baby with her Daddy!

Daddy is her favorite and she says that all the time. She only calls me Momma when she really needs something, otherwise I'm Daddy lately. :) When Brett's gone to work, she loves pointing to him in the pictures on the walls and saying Daddy over and over again. She gets so excited when she hears the garage door open cause she knows that means Daddy is home. 

She laid on her boppy and I snapped a photo to compare since we
laid her on it just like this when she was 2 days old.

Comparison! This was the day we got home from the hospital.
She's changed so much!

Kayla will still put everything in her mouth. I can't wait for this phase to be over. She eats crayons, rocks, flowers, you name it. My finger has been crunched really hard almost daily with all of her teeth! She has 12 now, 4 on top front, 4 on bottom front, and 2 molars on each side. She is getting more picky with her eating, unfortunately, although I wonder if its more of an independence thing. She loves feeding herself with a spoon and is getting better at it, but its still so messy. I try to feed her to save the hassle and she won't have it. So I'll deal with the mess and hope she gets better. She dislikes getting her teeth brushed, but as soon as we're done, she plays with her toothbrush and is happy as a clam. 

She is such a ham!

Her favorite foods of late are apple slices, cuties, crackers, sliced deli meat, cheese of any kind, scambled eggs, cereal, pasta, peas, and ........sweets! With Easter here, Brett snuck her a few pieces of candy here and there and she LOVED it! She always wants whatever I'm eating so its a good reminder for me to only eat healthy food. 

Helping mom workout

She loves playing outside and will stand at the back door whining to go out. Its been so beautiful the past few months that we've been outside a lot, but its now getting hot and HUMID so our time outside is going to be cutting back. I go walking with a friend around a park on the mornings I'm off and Kayla loves to wave at the people we pass. We also go on walks around our neighborhood a lot. They're building lots of new houses and Kayla will just stare at the construction workers. She's so fascinated with them. 

Enjoying the sun on the back deck. 

Kayla is also pretty interested in the potty. Any time Iosepa goes, she stares in wonder and when she sees me going, she tries to hand me toilet paper and says "What's that" over and over again. I got excited and thought I should start introducing her to it more. So one day, during bath time, she made the face like she needed to poo so I whisked her out of the tub and plopped her onto the toilet. Well, I think I scared her to death. She freaked out and wouldn't go potty. I just hope I didn't scar her for life!

My only concern/frustration is her bottle use. She wouldn't take whole's milk when I started weaning her until Brett finally thought to try it in a bottle. She only had a bottle occasionally when I was at work, but she took the milk from the bottle without any problem. Now, we keep trying to get her to drink it from a Sippy cup, which she uses daily for water, but she refuses. As soon as she gets a taste of milk from the sippy, she makes a face and spits it out. It's so bizarre. I don't know what to do about this. I'm open to suggestions. :) 

One of my favorite things about Kayla though is her dancing and singing. Whenever anything with a beat starts to play, she little arms and hips start moving. She has got good rhythm too! Her dance moves are hilarious and unique and she will try to sing along. Her favorite dancing song is "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors. During the 'Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh" part of that song, she sings her own little Oh Oh and I love it! I'm so happy that she loves music! I'll have to post a video of her dancing. It really is awesome. 

We love our little Kayla Rae!

In San Antonio with Kendra!

A little Selena hat!

Easter

Easter is such a wonderful season. I've really been focusing on and studying the Atonement lately. I've been reading The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister. Its been such a rewarding and humbling experience to learn more about and understand better the single greatest act that has ever transpired in human history. 

Being here in the Valley has been different because Good Friday is such a huge celebration. Growing up, I never heard people talk about or focus on Good Friday. I've pondered that a lot this week. I've decided that I'm even more grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints now than ever before. What I mean by that is I'm grateful that we know to focus on the Atonement and Resurrection as opposed to the crucifixion specifically. I would never assume to undermine the death of our Savior and the suffering that he experienced. But his dying was not the unique part of his life. We will all die, but because of his life and his resurrection, we will all live again, as he surely does now. 

We can also never be too grateful for the gift of the Atonement. Christ atoned for every sin, sorrow, loss, temptation. I truly testify that ANYTHING we experience, He has already done so. When we suffer, if we turn to Him, He will truly lift our burdens and ease our suffering. I fear that focusing on the crucifixion will almost misses out on the true miracles of what transpired during the week before Easter. I'm so grateful for my Savior, his perfect life, his infinite atonement, his death and his miraculous and life changing resurrection. I hope we can all remember all year round and not just on Easter. I'm grateful for the sacrament each Sunday to remind me of that great and everlasting Atonement.

Now, on to the Easter festivities. Kayla is obviously too young to understand much more about Easter than picking up eggs but I watched some church videos with Iosepa before we colored eggs and we talked a bit about Jesus and how wonderful He was. We had fun coloring eggs and making traditions. 

Last year, my mom sent Kayla a pinwheel for Easter. We got it out again this year and she quite enjoyed playing with it and blowing on it to spin it. 

Early this morning, we had a little Egg Hunt here at home. We've had a crazy work schedule so we weren't able to attend any of the hunts with friends, but Kayla still enjoyed herself this morning. About halfway through the hunt, she figured out that there was candy inside and would rather open the eggs than hunt them down. We kept having to distract her by pointing out more eggs. She did manage to get a couple pieces of candy in before breakfast. What are holidays for, right? :)

My mom sent Kayla an Easter card that played music and had Bambi on it. She LOVED it. She played with it all day and would bob her head to the music. I so love her appreciation of music. 

Brett's mom bought Kayla this precious Easter outfit. She wore it yesterday and today before church and got so many comments on how cute she was. 

Since Brett works every Sunday afternoon and evening, we always have our big Sunday meal before church. We didn't make any exceptions with the traditional Easter meal so we had a delicious ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, and green beans. The best part about it was that I got to have it again for dinner after church! 

We got Kayla into her Easter dress and took a few family photos before church. Sacrament meeting was wonderful with music and testimony of our Savior. It was truly a wonderful Easter. I sure love this little family of mine! I'm grateful that because of Him, we are together forever and can overcome the weaknesses of  the flesh. 

I fear it was too bright to get a smile from Kayla.

She sure loves her Daddy!

 Happy Easter from our little bunny to all of you!

Haley's Wedding

So, as promised, here is a post about Haley's big day! We were so happy to be able to be there for most of Haley's wedding celebrations. It was wonderful to see Haley go through the Idaho Falls Temple and then be sealed to Jon in the Logan Temple. I know that he is a good man, balances her out and that they are really happy together. I'm excited to see what the future brings for them. 

When I got to town, my mom and I threw Haley a bridal shower with our friends in Soda Springs. It was a great chance to see some wonderful people that I appreciate now more than ever. Its amazing how much influence so many people have on an individual. Many of these ladies helped shape me into the person I am today. 

I was also able to help with the wedding decor. Haley wanted a shabby chic look but was a bit short on supplies. So, I took it on myself to go antique shopping, something I've never done before. Antique shops are an interesting place. I found some really cool stuff I wish I could have brought home......and some really weird stuff. :) I was able to find some doors and windows to make everything come together a bit better. It felt nice to contribute since I'd been so far away for most of the planning. 

The morning of Haley's wedding, I got up at 5:30 to go to her hotel and do her hair. Yes, I'm really that awesome. ;) Their sealing was very early, so our day started off before the sun came up. Her hair turned out beautiful and I even had time to do my own before heading back to get Brett, Kayla and my Dad from my friends house that we stayed at. The sealing was really nice. I love the moments before a sealing when you look around and see so many family and friends all seated reverently in this holy room. There is so much peace that comes with the temple. 

After the sealing, I helped Haley get all prettied up again before heading out of the temple to be bombarded with well wishes, photos, and COLD. It was a pretty chilly morning. I'm not sure Kayla knew what to think of the weather! We took our photos, and then headed to the Blue Bird for a delicious luncheon. Again, it was great to sit and visit with family that we never get to see being so far away. 

That evening, after driving back from Logan to Pocatello, we had a beautiful reception with a yummy ice cream bar for dessert. I got to see and visit with even more family. Too bad there isn't a wedding every time we go home. It was sure a convenient way to squeeze in so many visits in a short amount of time! I am truly blessed with a wonderful immediate and extended family! 

After Haley and Jon headed out, we did some cleaning up and then went back to Brett's mom's house to crash. We all slept a very long time that night, including Kayla, thankfully!  It was a beautiful and memorable day and I was so proud to see my baby sister become a wife. I hope that she is experiencing all the joys that marriage allows. I personally think marriage is a whole lot easier than being single. :)

Here's a few photos from the big day. 

We ran up to hug them as soon as they walked out of the temple

Dad, Jon, Haley, Mom, Corey

Look at our handsome husbands! We Summers' girls did good!

The wedding party

Kayla wanted to help me make the sign for their Thank You picture

Our little family!

My friend Emily, who we stayed with the night before the wedding has the sweetest little boy I know. And Kayla agrees! She loves this boy! While we were waiting for Haley and Jon to do their pictures, we started playing music on our phones and Kayla was dancing to it with Noah. It was so precious how they kept running to each other to hug. I love these tender little moments. Not to mention that our little Kayla has some moves! I'll post a video of her dance skills soon. 

That is a look of joy, combined with bright sun, while on the hunt for her man! :)

The backdrop

Mom, Kayla, and Brett
Kayla was exhausted and really clingy throughout the day but still
cute and friendly!

The girls

Tossing the bouquet!

The cake!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Brett was the babies' favorite! My cousin's daughter Paige
decided she wanted Brett's attention and Kayla
wasn't too sure what to think about that. 

What a ladies' man!

My sweet cousin Tiffani and I!

The Getaway Car. They wouldn't tell us which car they were taking.
Luckily we picked the right one. And hid the keys to the other one,
for good measure. :)

Saying Goodbye to Mrs Dutton!