Santa Clause : (

Since we have no Santa photos I decided to have fun and embelish a few other photos:


Company Logo Design at logomyway


Company Logo Design at logomyway


We tried again to get Santa pictures with Kyla yesterday and again had no luck. We went to see a Santa Clause who was sitting in a huge sleigh full of presents. I thought that Kyla might be interested in at lease sitting by him in the sleigh, since she loves sleds so much. We watched other kids get their pictures taken and the whole time Kyla was saying "No, No, No...". As soon as I said lets getour picture with Santa she had a melt down. We went into a couple of stores and then again I said lets go see Santa and she lost it again. I was hoping to at least get a picture of Kyla with Santa while crying, but it is not that she just cries when she see him. She throws a huge fit, screaming, crying, kicking, throwing her body up in the air. So bad that the photographer does not even try to get a picture because she is trying to protect Santa from getting hurt. I am not going to torture Kyla any more this year with trying to get a Santa picture for us. We will try again next year. She can say Santa and when asked what she wants from Santa she says a "ball".

17 Months Old!!!

Our little girl is 17 months old today! Wow!!! I can't believe in another month she will be a year and a half! It is really hard to believe. The other day I was in the DMV getting my Alaska Drivers License and a man next to me was there with his 16 year old daughter who was getting his license. He looked over at me and said before you know it you will be in here with her doing the same. I have always heard parents say that time flys with a little one, and I am already feeling that with Kyla. However, to me she is still my little baby!

At 17 months Kyla is a wonderful little girl and is so much fun to be around. Her vocabulary is growing more and more everyday. She really understands everything that you say and is very good at following directions. She is so good and I feel so lucky to have such a great daughter. She puts her toys away when she is done playing, she asks for her bib and won't start eating until you put in on her, she lets you know when she needs to go potty or needs a diaper change. She is so smart!

The other day she wanted to stay in the bathroom forever. She loves sitting on the potty and hates to wear a diaper. After spending a lot of time with her in the bathroom, joking I said "why don't we just move your tiolet into the living room", she hopped up off the tiolet and tried to pick it up to move with a big smile. I think that we are going to try out big girl underwear on her since she is doing so well with toileting and hates diapers so much!!! We will just use the diapers at nighttime and naptime.

Other things that Kyla is enjoying at this stage are playing in the snow, doing puzzles (which she calls bubbles), singing and learning new dance moves and movements to songs, books (especialy ones with flaps or removable pieces), playing with balls and sitting at kid size table and chairs. She loves to gives hugs and kisses and everytime she hugs you she says "OOOOOOO", it is very cute! She loves to listen to people talk to her on the phone. And most of all she loves to climb on everything! She is a little monkey and has great balance and coordination (she never falls).

She loves other kids, but is shy and takes a little bit of time to warm up to them and play. She is beginning to enjoy coloring. Kyla loves to eat and try new things, I am very suprised about some of the things that she will eat. She always wants to eat off everyone elses plates and because of it gets to try lots of new things. Another new thing that Kyla is doing is everytime she sits down to play, read, go potty.... she pats the floor where she wants you to sit until you sit down to interact with her.

Kyla is such a happy and loving little girl and Jon and I are so proud of every new word she says, dance move she learns, funny thing she does....... We absolutely love being her parents.

Snow, Snow, Snow....

Lots of new snow!



Out playing in the cold! Brrrrrrr!



Checking out the presents under the Christmas tree



Wishing it was Christmas



So many presents!



Dancing with her moose!




Anchorage has been getting hit hard by a lot of snow the past few days as well as really cold temperatures. But, this has not stopped Kyla from wanting to go out and play. Yesterday the warmest it got was 10 degrees and we were out sledding and she played in the snow while I shoveled. It is beautiful out with all the snow and it definitely gets you in the Christmas Spirit. We also finished all of our Christmas shopping yesterday and have our presents wrapped and under the tree. I wrapped them while Kyla was sleeping and she got so excited once she woke up and saw presents under the tree, now hopefully she will leave them wrapped for the next week. Temperatures are suppose to get colder in the coming days, so we plan to stay in and help my mom make Christmas goodies for family and friends.

Two days ago I gave in and finally decided to get the Swine flu shot and Seasonal flu shot for both me and Kyla. We have been lucky not to get sick yet and it helps with me and Kyla not being in a child care setting. We were able to get her the thimerosal-free shots which made me feel much better about having her vaccinated. Neither of us had any reaction to the shots and I feel a bit of relief to not have to worry so much about being exposed to both viruses. Unfortunately, Kyla has to go back in a month to get round 2 of the Swine flu vaccine.

Christmas Tree Decorating!

Kyla checking out the 13 foot tall tree at my parents house




Helping hang up the christmas lights



Kyla loves her singing skating moose!



Sitting by the fire with her moose rug



Kyla hung the first decoration on the tree



Enjoying a bottle fireside




The finished Christmas tree!




On Monday we decorated the Christmas Tree. My parents normally find a good tree to cut down at their cabin, but this year because of all of the snow and frost on the trees could not find a good tree. Instead they decided to cut a tree down in their yard that was tangled up in the power lines and needed to come down anyway. The tree they cut down is 13 feet tall!

Kyla and I helped my mom decorate the tree which took quite awhile since we had to use latters to decorate the top. Kyla had a great time helping pick out ornaments and handing them to me to hang up. The tree looked really good once we were done and we had a good time decorating.

We finished up around 9 pm and then at 11 pm the tree came crashing down landing on my parents living room floor, right where my mom had been sitting up until 15 minutes before. We had a huge mess with broken decorations everywhere! So at 11:00 we were cleaning up the mess and had to put the tree in a different tree stand and take off all the remaining decorations.

So, Tuesday we had to start all over fixing the lights and redecorating the tree. Luckiliy my mom has a ton of decorations so the broken ones will not be missed and none of the special ones broke. Decorating the tree for the second time was not as fun, my mom and I did it quickly while Kyla took a nap. Next year I think they might go with a little shorter tree.

Too Funny!

If you can't tell by these pictures, Kyla is a pretty funny little girl. She does her best to get a laugh out of you and has a great laugh of her own! This is Kyla's funny face that she is making in the photos above. She likes to make this face when she is goofing around. However, lately as soon as she sees a camera this is the face she makes! The camera does not even need to be turned on or pointed at her and she makes this face. So, it looks like we will have many more photos of Kyla and her funny face. She gets quite a good laugh out of everybody with her goofy grin.

No Santa Pictures

Yesterday we were so excited to get Kyla all dressed up in her pretty little christmas dress to go get pictures with Santa. The moms group had recomended a good photographer in the area who was doing Santa pictures at a baby boutique. The Santa looked great and Kyla just stared at him and gave him smiles while we waited in line. Then, the second we walked up to him once it was her turn she screamed, cried and clinged to me. Both me and Jon tried to sit with her and Santa to cheer her up, but it did not help. We waited around for awhile hoping she would change her mind and want to sit with Santa after watching more kids get their pictures done, but that did not happen.

After leaving, we came home and read stories with Santa in them and showed her last years pictures of her with Santa and her Cousins Mason and Madeline with Santa. She was even giving Santa kisses in the pictures. They were doing pictures again today, so we were wanting to warm her up to the idea of wanting to sit on Santa's lap. We really want to have a Santa picture and know that my mom and Jon's mom both want a picture as well, so we were really hoping she would like Santa. Lately she has become a bit more shy about going up to new people, so we were prepared for her to not want anything to do with Santa this year.

So, today I got her all dressed up again and the second we walked into the store she got scared and started clinging to me and crying. We waited around for awhile for her to calm down and I even tried sitting with her for the picture, but she was very very upset and so we ended up leaving again with no photo. We might try again in a couple of weeks, just before Christmas, but we will give her a break for now so we don't traumatize her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Having a good time at the cabin!



Grandma and Grandpa wearing their fur hats!



Christmas Lights at the Cabin!



Kyla and Mommy out for a snowmachine ride at the cabin



Kyla having fun on the snowmachine



Mommy, Daddy and Kyla had fun being pulled behind the snowmachine by Grandpa



Kyla's first piece of blueberry pie (Daddy's Favorite)



Blueberry Lips!



Making Snow Angels



Kyla and Daddy having fun in the snow



Enjoying the snowy day!



Wearing Daddy's Bunny Boots



Too Big!!!



Having so much fun sledding at the cabin with Daddy!



Kyla had a very fun Thanksgiving weekend. On Thanksgiving day we went to my Grandparents house for Thanksgiving Lunch. It was great to see a lot of family that I have not seen in a long time. Several of my cousins who were there I have not seen since our wedding, over four years ago. Kyla got to meet a lot of new people and did really well being in a big crowd. Her favorite thing she had for Thanksgiving was clam chowder. We did really miss being in Washington with Jon's family for Thanksgiving and would like to start spending Thanksgivings with them next year.

After lunch we went to my parents cabin in petersville to spend the rest of the weekend. At the cabin we spent a lot of time playing with Kyla in the new snow. Kyla went sledding in her little sled, sledding in the big sled behind the snowmachine and went snowmachining. She had a blast playing outside and loved being at the cabin. On the snowmaching and sled she would just say "Weeeee, Weeeee, Weeeee" over and over or "Go, Go!". We all had a great time and look forward to going back up to the cabin soon.

16 months!!!

Out Sledding in the yard



Reading the Wheels on the Bus



Kyla is now 16 months old!!! I think that this might be my favorite age so far! She is so much fun, has such a great personality and is very funny! We have so much fun with her and she is getting to be so smart and so entertaining.

Kyla is absolutely loving the snow and playing outside. She loves to try to get herself dressed in her snow clothes, hat and boots. Whenever anyone mentions outside or goes out the door she runs to get her hat and puts in on her head. Unfortunately, the last week has been between 0 and 10 degrees everyday, so we have not had a lot of outdoor time this week.

Other things that Kyla loves at this age are doing puzzles, playing with her crayons, her kitchen, mega blocks, books with flaps to open and foam books with removable pieces and dancing of course. She has learned all of the moves to dance to "the wheels on the bus", "head and shoulders, knees and toes" and "If your happy and you know it". Her favorite singer to dance to is Taylor Swift, she likes all of her songs.

Kyla's other favorite things to do is go pottty on her singing toilet. She is doing very good at potty training and lets you know when she needs to go. When we are home she hardly has a wet diaper. When we are out she still lets you know she needs to go, but has not gone on a regular toilet yet. She feels so proud of herself every time that she uses her potty. It is amazing how smart she is and how determined she is to be independent. She really thinks she is such a big girl.

Kylas two best friends in Anchorage so far are Hannah and Hannah. One Hannah is from the playgroup and the other is the Hannah that I take care of a few hours a day while her mom is in school. She loves playing with both of these girls, they are both a month older than her and lots of fun to play with.

Kyla has been learning a lot more words. She loves to say harder words now, she loves to say cracker and Garbage. She asks for a cracker every time she is in the kitchen, and she thinks that everything is Garbage and wants to go throw everything away. She also really understands almost everything that you say and nods her head yes and no to answer as well as saying yes, luckily she is not yet saying no! We are constantly amazed at how much she understands.

At 16 months Kyla now has 8 teeth, 6 our front teeth and 2 molars. Now that she has more teeth she is eating much more food than before and likes most of the food we eat. Her favorite food is fruit and veggies, especially Mandarin Oranges, Pomegranates, Peas and Corn. Her other favorite food is grilled cheese, which she calls a "Cheese".

I am so thankful everyday for having such a wonderful and healthy daughter.

Snow!!!

We are finally getting snow in Anchorage!!! Kyla has gone out to play in the snow a few times and LOVES it! She is adorable all bundled up in her winter clothes. She was out playing on her new sled and loved it until Jon flipped it and she did a faceplant into the snow :( As soon as Jon gets home from work tonight he is gonna make it up to her and take her out again. For Christmas Jon is getting her a pair of cross country skis to play around on in the yard, then he will really have fun with her outside.

Also, Kyla is doing really well on her potty training!!! We bought her a fun little singing toilet a couple weeks ago. Within the first week of trying she went and now she goes at least once a day! Hurray!!! She is so cute, she knows when she needs to go and runs for the bathroom tugging at her clothes. I think we are going to have it easy on the potty training!

Halloween Fun!

Kyla enjoyed Halloween and all of the Halloween Festivities leading up to the holiday. She really liked her ladybug costume and enjoyed all of the decorations and Halloween toys. Kyla had two different toys that sang, danced and lit up (one from each grandma) and had a blast playing with them. They even had to get new batteries put in them already. She liked playing with the pumpkins and looking at the carved pumpkin glow in the dark. We only had one trick or treater. We also had a moose stop by for a visit and eat our pumpkin.