1st Birthday Princess

I can't believe that Kayley is already 1 year old! (She turned 1 on September 3rd.) She is so much fun and I love playing with her and getting to know her sweet little personality. She is so full of energy and excitement for everything in life and she's turning into a little girl before my very eyes. I know that as soon as we have our little baby girl in December, Kayley is going to seem so grown up. I love being her mother and have learned so much from her. She always brings a smile to my face and makes me feel better when I'm sad.

Here are some things about Kayley at 1 year:

*She is starting to talk a lot. She says dada, mama, duck, quack, cock (for cock-a-doodle-do), all done (a dun), hi, bunny (dunny), uh-oh, go, up, ball, dog, cat, cow, ball, hat, shoes (more of a "shs" sound, but we know what she's talking about), keys, clap and lots and lots of baby gibberish.
*Her "dunny" is her favorite thing in the world. It's a little stuffed animal I got her for Easter that she sleeps with. She would crawl around holding and kissing it all day long if we would let her. She gets so excited any time that she sees it or hears us say bunny or sees a picture of a bunny for that matter.
*She nods her head yes and shakes her head no.
*One of her favorite things to do is to go up and down the stairs. She will find them no matter where we are, especially at home and at both grandparents' houses. I used to follow closely behind her because I was scared that she was going to fall, but she is getting pretty proficient at it that if I am doing something at the moment and can't be right behind her, I don't worry about her falling.
*She pulls herself up on everything and has just started in the past couple of weeks to walk along things. She will walk holding onto a walker if we are helping her and sometimes will walk with us holding her hands, but she's still not super interested in walking. She is very content crawling and has turned into a speedy little crawler.
*She loves baths but just recently has decided that she's not a huge fan of getting her hair washed.
*She waves at everyone and everything, but only when she wants to and, as with everything else, won't do it on cue very often until the people are walking or driving away.
*She has just recently started clapping and loves the song, "When You're Happy and You Know It." That's one of the first ones I start singing when she is grumpy in the car and she stops being fussy almost immediately and starts clapping along.
*She gets so excited any time that she sees a little kid. She is so entertained by them and loves watching them play and run around.
*She used to give us kisses every time that we would ask her to, but I think that we kind of took advantage of the privilege and so now she only does it when she wants to. My favorite thing ever is when she turns to kiss us when we don't ask her to. It's so cute!
*She is hopefully starting to get out of this stage and things are getting a lot better, but for a while now it is so hard to change her diaper or her clothes because she is so squirmy and busy and won't sit still for anything.
*She is completely weaned now and does great with drinking whole milk. She is also a great eater and will eat almost anything that I give her. She hasn't eaten baby food for a while now. She is a huge fan of grapes, string cheese, bananas, oatmeal, corn, peas, carrots, whole wheat bread, watermelon..you get the point, basically everything! She loves to eat. She's definitely her mother's child! :)
*She loves books! Sometimes she will sit and let me read to her for 20-30 minutes at a time and other times she won't sit longer than half a book and she is squirming out of my lap on to her next project of destruction. (Nate calls her "Destructo" because she gets into everything and often finds a way to destroy everything.)
*She still only has 2 bottom teeth even though she has teethed soo many times now but those top teeth still haven't made their way out. She loves her toothbrush though and will sit and brush her two little teeth/suck and bite on her toothbrush forever. It has become one of her favorite toys.
*She loves her daddy and gets so excited any time she sees him or hears his voice. One of her favorite times of day is when daddy comes home for lunch.

Here are some pictures from her special day:

Her cake was a hit! She loved it and got it everywhere!

She enjoyed it so much that she wanted to share it with all of us! :)

Opening Presents

Elmo was probably her favorite gift of all.

The aftermath of opening presents.

We had her 1 year appointment on the 15th. This is how much she's grown.

Weight:18 lbs. 6 oz.(15%)

Length: 29 in. (50%)

Head: 45 cm. (50%)

It's a......

Most of you already know what we are having since we have known for over a month now, but just in case you don't, we are having another little GIRL. We are super excited and can't wait to meet our little princess. Kayley is going to love having a little sister and I'm sure that they will be best of friends.
I am going to try REALLY hard to get caught up on my blog during the next little while. Seeings how I am over 4 months behind, it seems like quite the overwhelming task and will probably take me forever, but I just need to start somewhere. Since I don't keep a journal, this is my only record, so I just have to make myself do it. Also, our sweet Kayley is going to be 1 year old a week from today. I can't believe it! The last year has just flown by so quickly.
These aren't the best pictures in the world because they were taken with our cell phones, but I always like posts with pictures and these are the most recent ones we have, so I thought that I'd throw them in here at the end.

This was up Provo Canyon at a family picnic.

Another 4 generation picture, my Grandma Hill, my mom, Kayley and me. This one shows my lovely fat, I mean pregnant, belly.

Eating for 3!

For those of you who have wondered what has happened to me for the past 2 months, I am here to tell you that I am still alive and sorry about not posting forever. I feel like I have a pretty good excuse though. My excuse is that I have been eating for 3! No, I am not pregnant with twins, but with nursing Kayley and Baby #2 on the way, my body has been pretty busy. It's kind of pathetic how exhausted I feel all the time. If I don't take a nap while Kayley's taking her morning nap, I usually have a pretty hard time getting through the rest of the day. We are really excited and feel very blessed to have another one of Heavenly Father's precious spirits sent to our family. The baby will be here mid-December and we can't wait to find out what we're having. And I can't wait to get out of the sick stage of pregnancy. I forgot how much I hate being pregnant! :) I can usually only accomplish the top 1 or 2 things on my to-do-list every day and blogging has sadly been towards the end of that list and so I never get around to it. My main focus has just been getting through each day and trying to still be a good mom and wife, both of which I often feel like I am failing at horribly. I am so grateful for a sweet, understanding husband who has had to pick up dinner on his way home from work on more than one occasion, and who is willing to help with anything that I ask him to do around the house. And for those of you who are curious, I am 13 weeks today!

Exciting News and Then Some...

EXCITING NEWS:
My little brother Trevor just got engaged last night!!! I am so excited for them. He is marrying this cute girl Andie Robinson in July! They are so happy together and are going to make a great couple. Something else just as exciting is that my parents homecoming is the Sunday before they get married so they will be here for the wedding. This is a picture of them with Aubrey, Max and Makenzie.

AND THEN SOME:

This is the tutu I made for Kayley's photo shoot. They are seriously so easy and so fun to make! No sewing involved, which is my kind of craft!

We went to Paradise Bakery last Friday night for dinner and Kayley

loved feeling like a big kid in her high chair.

For some reason, people kept staring at us while we were eating....

Two Sundays ago we were late for church because right when we were about to leave, Kayley had a blowout that got all over her dress resulting in a change of her whole outfit. We sat out in the foyer on the couches during the sacrament, which we luckily made it in time for, and as I was looking down at Kayley, I thought, "Wow, she looks so grown up right now. " Needless to say, I got the camera and took a picture of her. I know, that's probably sacrilegious, but at least I wasn't in the chapel, right?!

When the weather was playing tricks on us during that one week of spring, which I'm praying will come back soon, we went on walks almost every day. Kayley loves being outside!

I was doing a photo shoot a couple weeks ago and finally

I just gave up because Kayley kept making faces like this.

Kayley and Scotlyn cuddling on the couch after Sunday dinner.

Pretty in Pink

My sweet friend, Amy, took some pictures of Kayley yesterday. I was worried that they might not turn out because Kayley would not cooperate. She wouldn't smile for anything at first, (surprise, surprise! :) but Amy managed to get some really cute ones of her. Kayley was really good the whole time. I love my baby girl. If it were up to me, I'd do a "photo shoot" at least once a week. It was so much fun to make her little tutu and get her all dressed up. I spent way too much time on photoshop today playing with these pictures and editing them when I should have been working on my relief society/ yw's lesson for tomorrow. I'm sorry that there are soo many, but I just couldn't choose between them.

I love her blue eyes!

And she loves that pink necklace! :)

I had to keep taking it out of her mouth.

Small and Simple Things That Make Me Happy!

I finally, thanks to Cammie, got a video of Kayley laughing! She has been laughing forever now, but as I've said before, any time I get the video camera out she stops what she's doing and just stares at the camera. Anyway, we went up to Sandy today and spent the afternoon with some of Kayley's cousins. It was really fun to see how Kayley just lights up around other little kids, especially her cousins. I put both videos on here because I couldn't decide between the two but they are about the same so you obviously don't need to watch both of them. This seriously made my day! As I was driving home I couldn't stop smiling and thinking about how it's the small and simple things of life, like my baby giggling, that bring me so much happiness!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!!