Leila's 3rd Birthday

September 14, 2012 marked Leila's 3rd birthday.  We were able to have her party on her birthday.  She invited a few friends over (Brooklyn, Hadlee, Cheyanne, Ethan - then a few of Kuso's friends brought their kids too.)  Above is Leila, Brooklyn, and Hadlee (don't you LOVE Hadlee's dress?  Her mom could not get her to take it off to come to the party, so she wore it.  Love it.)

The party was Minnie Mouse theme. 
Leila knows and understands to blow out the candles.

Now that this post is over 3 months late, I'll tell you a little about Leila as a 3 year old.

• She has gotten much more emotional - "you mad at me" as she pouts or "you gonna make me cry"
• She is SUPER excited to be having a baby brother on the way
• She is a great mother to her babies at grandma's house.  Puts them to sleep, feeds them, wraps them in blankets, and makes sure to tell everyone to be very quiet while they are sleeping - let's just hope she keeps acting that way when the REAL baby is sleeping!
• She tells me that I am her "best friend" quite often.
• Her dad carries her with his arm straight down and his hand between her legs, holding on to her butt.  It's hilarious, but that is how his dad used to carry him and his little brother through town when they were little.  So he started doing that to her.  Now she ASKS to be carried like that all the time. 
• She still has a sippy cup most nights, but not usually during the day. 
• She is VERY aware of what is around her.  Doesn't miss a thing.
• She has started copying the last word or phrase you say and turns it in to a question.  One night my mom and dad were play fighting in the kitchen and my mom said "You are such a jackass."  Leila says "Jackass?"  It was WAY funny, but surprisingly enough all the adults were able to stifle their laughter so we could teach her that wasn't funny. 
• She uses lines from movies and phrases from TV shows in her regular conversations.  "Whew, that was a close one" I'm pretty sure came from Octonauts.
• She LOVES Disney Channel.
• She has learned to navigate the mouse on the computer - so if "Papa" turns on a video for her to watch on You Tube, she can start her own new videos now.
• She is getting MUCH more girly.  Her favorite color is usually pink.
• She is not a very good eater, unless she is hungry, then she can put it away.  But she will "pick" at her food for 2 or 3 days, but then on the "hungry" day, she cleans the place up!  She also only eats what she wants to eat.  It is rare that I can get her taste something she doesn't already know she likes.
• She has "her kids" go with us everywhere.  "Her kids" are real people, they just aren't really with us.  It is usually her cousin Kiley.  Kiley is always eating with us, sitting next to her in the car, has to get in the shopping cart at the store, playing with her, dancing with her, and just being there, always.  Sometimes her other friends are included, but Kiley is always a constant. 
• She had her first dentist visit, well second but the first one was a bust so they just sent us home.  This time around, she was a ROCK STAR!  She held her mouth wide open the entire time and never had to be told what needed to be done.  She made me a proud mama that day!
• She is still VERY active and bounces all over the house.  It is usually hilarious, except when this mom is tired at the end of the day and Leila still wants to bounce around.  ESPECIALLY after her bath.  The girl loves to be naked and thinks it's funny to shake her booty and say "nananana."  It is pretty funny though.  I just have to remind myself that she isn't being bad and I don't need to get mad at her for being silly when it's not hurting anything.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.  Leila is FULL of life and enjoys every second of it.  She is very caring and very stubborn.  She has given me the greatest gift ever - the gift of being a mother and knowing a mother's love. 

I have the most beautiful daughter and the Spirit she carries and exemplifies mirrors that same beauty.

Welcome to the Family

This post probably belongs before my last one, but deal with it.

October 5, 2012, Troy made Casey his Eternal companion in the St. George, Utah temple.  The Sealer spent a few minutes reminding the rest of us about the Covenants we had made when we entered the temple and how important those Covenants are for our earthly life as well as our eternal life. 

Casey brings out the best in my brother.  She is everything he is and everything he is not all in one person.  It kind of amazes me at how much has has changed (for the better) since Casey became a significant part of his life.  His story just adds to the list of "when it's right, you just know it" stories.

October 13, 2012 they had a reception at the "South Chapel" that we grew up attending.  The decorations were awesome and we had a LOT of compliments about how nice it looked and how "relaxing" it was.  Funny word for a wedding reception, but with the cabin/woodsy type decor, "relaxing" may have been an appropriate word.....and the "open bar" (Coke machine) definitely helped in making people feel comfortable.

No, I didn't take pictures...but I got a few tagged on my facebook, so I put them here.

Yes, that would be my brother Shawn and my husband Kuso "sharing" a cinnamon roll at the reception in Paragona, Utah.  Shawn suggested it in a mocking manner to Kuso of course went along and there ya go, the awkwardly funny picture. 

Baby #2

We are SUPER excited that we will be having a second child join us!  AND we are SUPER excited that it is going to be a boy! 

 

The technical due date is February 22, 2013.  When we had the ultrasound, I was exactly 19 weeks.  But all measurements during the ultrasound indicate that the baby was measuring 17 1/2 weeks.  THAT is probably a little more accurate based on my wacked out body functions anyway.  So in MY mind, the due date is February 26 or March 1.  I guess we'll find out in a few short months!

 

Ever since we have been telling Leila that mommy was having a baby, she always (aside from probably 4 incidents) told us it was a "baby brudder." 

 

We told my parents as part of my mom's birthday gift.  In her card from Leila I wrote "Dear Grandma, remember when you babysat me last February while mommy and daddy went to rugby?  Can we do that again next year, but not because of rugby, but because mommy is having a baby."

 

My mom had been reading it silently and looked up with VERY surprised look on her face and said "You are?!?!"  Then got to tell my dad and brother who were there.  That was fun.

 

I think in a post a long time ago, I may have mentioned that I have a hard time getting pregnant.  It's not to the level that some of my friends have had to reach to be able to get pregnant, or decide if adoption is the right choice, but because it is so difficult for me to conceive, once it finally happens, the gift of being a mother and able to bear children seems that much more of a miracle.  We are truly blessed to be able to become biological parents, and that once I finally do get pregnant, for the most part, the pregnancy is easy sailing. 

 

We can't wait to meet this little guy!

 

So as of this post, October 16th, I am technically 21 weeks and 3 days along!  Downward slope baby. 

 

...now that my blog is mostly up to date, I'll post pics of my growing belly soon...

Taylorsville Dayz

 I promise Leila wears more than this outfit.  Interestingly enough, I think this is the last time she WORE this outfit.  Can't find it. Forgot she had it until I looked through the camera one day.  It's not anywhere in our house, our cars, our bags, or my mom's.  But she clearly owned and wore them at some point.  Weird.  (this might have been the same day as the fairy party...I'm thinking it was.)

 

Anyway, this year Leila was big enough to ride the rides by herself.  She would hand in the tickets at each ride, pick which part of the ride she wanted to sit on, then ride without showing any enthusiasm in her face.  It was hysterical. 

 Drives like her daddy...the face says it all.

For entertainment this night, they had a Beach Boys coverband.  It was SO fun.  The next night was a Neil Diamond impersonator.  He was good, but the Beach Boys were WAY more entertaining and fun.  Taylorsville Dayz always puts on a GREAT fireworks show to music.  We may not live there, but we sure enjoy their festivities.

Fairy Tea Party

 Don't kill me, but I THINK this was on June 28, 2012.  My friend Alysha Miller asked if we wanted to take the girls to a Fairy Tea Party at Gardner Villlage.  I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but it sounded fun to get these three silly girls together.

It is exactly what it sounds like...a tea party with a fairy theme.  They got to put on hats and aprons and if they brought a doll, the doll got to dress up too.  Then they had juice and snacks.  I think Leila may have been a bit too young to appreciate how cute and fun everything really was.

 CHEERS!  So classy Leila.

 Leila is beautiful.  Heidi Morrison, the other mother who went with us, said this picture looks like it came out of a magazine.

 Above:  Leila, Brooklyn, Hadlee (as you can see, Leila didn't think it was fun to dress up.  She took it off not long after putting it on.)

Below:  Leila "ringing the bell" after they finished their fairy hunt

 Brookly, Hadlee, Leila - these three girls are so cute together.  Sometimes when it's time to walk to nursury at church, they find each other in the hall and hold hands while they walk there.  OR when we pick them up after nursury, the leaders tell us that they ran in a circle the ENTIRE time.  I believe them!

LOVE this face.  Glad I caught it as she came around the back of the poll.

Flag Burning Ceremony

 In June my parents ward Scout troop conducted a flag retirement ceremony.  They let members of the ward know in advance so they could collect all of the flags that had been worn out to retire them all at the same time. 

A couple of the leaders said a few words and all of the scouts participated by dropping one flag at a time on to the burning fire until all the flags were burned into ashes.  It was a pretty cool experience.

My Daughter is Cute

So Sunday night we were driving down Bangerter past the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  I pointed it out to Leila and told her "it's the temple."  She said "That's not a temple...that's a princess castle."  She always points at my wedding picture and says 'mommy princess dress' so I said "when you wear your princess dress you can go in that castle."  Her response..."I not a princess."  Little does she know that she is a princess and someday her prince will take her inside God's castle.

During the same drive we were trying to get her to say Aiono.  "Leila, say 'Aiono'."  Her response, "I not I no no."  (like she was getting in trouble even though we never say "no no" specifically. 

On Tuesday, I left work early to take Kuso to the doctor.  Turns out, he was recovering from pneumonia.  We got home and Kuso fell asleep on the recliner.  I was kind of dosing on the love seat and Leila came up and whispered "Mommy?  you asleep?" I didn't answer and next thing I know she picked up her night gown that was on the floor from the night before and put it over my arms like a blanket, leaned in and kissed my cheek and whispered "love you."  Then went about playing. 

Told you she was cute.

She is a great copy cat.  She has started to immitate everything I do.  When I comb her hair and she is playing with the elastic, I tap her shoulder, put my hand out and say "give me the pony tail."  Well, she is "in" to "doing my hair" now and does the EXACT same thing - movements, tone of voice, everything. 

My mom was combing her hair and while using the spray bottle she accidentally got some on the mirror.  Leila says "Grandma.  Don't. Squirt. The. Mirror."  Then it happened again.  She said the same thing, the same way, same irritated voice.  Can you guess what she hears when she plays with the water bottle while I'm combing her hair?

I probably shouldn't repeat this last story, but for history sake I am going to.  A few months ago, while driving with just Leila and myself in the car, I got irritated at this little white pickup truck and said "stay in your own lane you freaking retard."  (Note:  I try VERY hard not to use "retard" to describe something I don't like.  I used to use it a LOT.  I'm much improved but in the moment, it just came out.  I apologize to any who may be offended by that.)  So Leila responds "I not a freakin 'tard." 

Love you Bugglesquirt!