Kayla 7 Months

My happy, smiley baby girl!

Kayla has successfully made it through the first half of her first year and is charging forward into the 2nd half. Kayla is such a joy in our lives. I can't imagine life without her. She makes us laugh everyday and watching her explore and discover the world around her is magical. Kayla is growing and changing every day. This month was a great one for our little Kayla Rae!

Kayla is eating solid foods like a pro now, although still very messy. She has had carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, applesauce, avocado, peaches and both rice and oatmeal cereal. Though she is a bit fickle some days, she has eaten all of the above without too much protest.

She cut her two bottom teeth a few weeks ago. They are both through the skin but haven't come all the way up yet.

Kayla started going to daycare at the gym for about an hour at a time a few days a week. She has loved being with other kids. She never fusses at all while there.

Kayla caught her first bug this week. She has a runny nose and mild fever off and on. Its sad to see her not as her normal happy self.

Kayla is working on crawling. She gets up on her hands and feet and sort of launches herself forward. She hasn't mastered the concept of moving her hands along with her feet.

She loves standing and walking with help. She pulls herself up on things that are short enough for her to reach. Anytime she has the chance, she plants her feet and loves standing. She will hang out standing next to the couch for quite awhile. 

She's getting more and more excited about all of her toys. 

Kayla loves loves loves seeing herself in the mirror. If she's ever grumpy, we can put her in front of the mirror and a big smile pops up on her face! 

She is starting to wave at people. She always waves at herself in the mirror. 

Kayla's sleep habits are slowly improving from the vacation, although I think teething is throwing her off a bit. She occasionally still wakes up once at night. Sometimes she's hungry but usually she just needs to be rocked before she can go back to sleep.

Her babbles are sounding more and more like words as she's learning to make more consonant sounds. 

Kayla loves her daddy and always lights up when he comes home from work. 

Each day I wake up excited to see what Kayla will smile at or discover. She really is a wonderful baby and we are very blessed to have her in our family. 

Kayla playing with her house from Grandma Betsy, Grandpa Corey and Aunt Haley

My beautiful little lady!

Her crawling stance!

She has a better push-up stance than I do! :)

Kayla's new exersaucer! Thankfully it keeps her entertained for awhile so I can get things done around the house.

She's just so beautiful!

We tried to take a few more pictures, but she wasn't in a smiley mood since she's not feeling well.

This face just makes me laugh! 

Our big girl prefers to stand! :)

The Hottest Coolest Place in Texas

If you live in Texas, you've heard the jingle for Schlitterbahn's! Its the HOTTEST COOLEST PLACE IN TEXAS! WE'RE GOING TO SCHLITTERBAHNS! :)

This last week, we had a fun family day at Schlitterbahn's at South Padre Island. Brett always gets free tickets from work. We went last year and had a blast! We thought it would be a great time for Kayla, as water parks go. As we remembered, you stay on your tube the entire time floating the lazy river and there are several slides that shoot off it. We thought we could hold Kayla on our laps and that she'd have a blast - she loves the pool, after all. We found the smallest life vest they had. It was still pretty large on her. I think she didn't how little she could move in it. As soon as we got on the lazy river, we were told every 30 seconds by the lifeguards that there was no lap riding and that Kayla needed to sit in her own half of the double tube. I thought that was a bit interesting since she's only 6 months old! Anyway, she didn't love the lazy river. We took her down a slide off the lazy river while on our tubes and we got splashed too much for her liking. We took her into the kiddy splash section and she liked that much better! We walked out to the beach and played in the gulf for a bit. They also have a new indoor section with another calmer lazy river. Kayla sat there with a look of tolerance the entire time. It was actually pretty funny. Kayla did really great for being outside all day long. She's a pretty good sport. :)

Enjoy a few pictures of our fun day! Don't mind the less than flattering photos of me. Swimsuits have never been my friend, haha!

Kayla was ready to be done with the lazy river.

Look how big the life jacket was on her!

Kayla really enjoyed the splash pad area the most!

She would climb right up on the sea shells to play in the water.

She really loves her Papi!

She didn't like the slide though.

Baby girl taking some steps in the surf. I love how warm the gulf water is!

Staley Family Reunion

While Kayla and I were still in Idaho, we got to attend the Staley Family Reunion at our family farm in Mud Lake, ID. I have always loved getting together with family, so I was excited that we were able to stay long enough to attend this reunion. I wish we lived close enough to attend all big family get togethers. As always, it was so great being able to see and catch up with so many family members, although it would have been better if Brett could have been there. Everyone thought Kayla was a doll and she was happy to be passed around to adults and kids alike. It was also Kayla's first time "camping". I say camping in quotations because while we are sleeping in tents and cooking our food outside, we have a house nearby with bathrooms and are minutes away from a grocery store. Its not exactly roughing it, but its fun nonetheless! Interestingly enough, Kayla slept better the first night in the tent than she had in 10 days! Maybe she's made for camping! We had a pretty good turn out this year and there were several new babies born in the last year! Its crazy how fast families start growing! There were several cousins that were unable to make it and they were definitely missed! We always seem to do a lot of sitting around and  talking, but I love it! We play volleyball every year, and its always interesting! I'm grateful for my family and the blessing and knowledge of eternal families! 

My little camper posing for a "selfie"

Kayla and Don
Despite how it looks, she really did love him!

Mom, Don, Marie, Courtney, John and Haley

Linda and her two newest grand babies!

Our first campfire! 

I think there was a beautiful sunset every single night that I was in Idaho!

Kayla was totally intrigued with the bonfire!

Here's one row of tents!

Crazy boys Micah and Landon

The famous treehouse zip line! My cousin Aaron was grounded as a teenager.
To pass time, we built a treehouse and a zipline going to a tree.
There are kids riding this thing the entire 3 days of the reunion and have been for years!!
Its been there as long as I remember. 

Isn't she precious!? (and I mean Kayla) :)

Here's a few of the kids waiting for the swing/zipline.

Kayla loved Mitchell and Tony. Look how she's holding onto his arm.

A baby sized chair for Kayla!

Carla and Kayla

Mitch and Kayla

 It wouldn't be a family reunion without something breaking down that needs fixed! The men in my family love having projects to do! No one lives in my Grandma's house anymore. After running the water for a couple days, the pipes appeared to be backed up. We we were afraid the septic tank was backed up, so right after breakfast Saturday morning, the boys dug a giant hole searching for the tank lid. Here's Garrett and Corey working on the project. All the men worked together and go the problem worked out. Never a dull moment with my family!

Kayla loved the other babies! This is Paige, Trina's daughter.

Kayla may be a camper, but I don't think she'll be a cowgirl. 

Mitch decided to dress up Kayla's headband with a natural touch. 

Kayla and Grandma Betsy with the whirly gig!

I think that leaf looks awesome!

No family reunion is complete without volleyball! We've been using the same pink ball as long as I can remember!

Trina was laughing pretty hard!