It's About Time!

First of all, Sorry. With Leila being much more active and into things, enjoying the nice weather, and being a home owner and the responsibilities that come with that, I haven't been making the blog a priority. Here are pictures from the past several months. We are going to have her first birthday party this coming weekend...stay tuned for an updated blog for that, along with an explanation of what she is doing these days as far as developmental milestones. Until then, enjoy the pictures. Waiting for the Doctor.

Family Picture at the Zoo.

Leila LOVED being this close to the monkeys.

So Sweet.

Leila with Grandpa Great Taylor.

My cute niece Kiley.

Impromptu famiy photo at Leila's blessing.

Leila in her blessing outfit.

Round two at the pool.

Daddy was "watching" her. Good thing this is what I found

and not something much more messy!

1st trip to the pool...

So cute in her glasses.

Check out those thighs!

Sweet thing loves her daddy...

Honey! I'm Home!

1968 Rambler. Purchased from original owners. Enjoy the tour...

The original owners were great. Utah fans! They left the light up U for us!

Inside the front door is the living room. I made those curtains all by myself (with some much needed direction from my mother.) Now I'm just trying to find some blinds to fit such a large window!

This tile work was done by my brother Troy. Well, MOST of the cosmetic stuff done in our house was done by Troy. Kuso was out of town for most of the remodel, but he did help lay this tile. I love it.As you exit living room, to the left is this, to the right, the hallway.

First door on the left is the bathroom.Straight down the hall, last door on the left is the Master room.

Above is the view from the hallway.

Below is the view from the Master Bath.

Master Bath

Leila's Room - last door on the right.

First door on the right, 3rd Bedroom/computer room for now.

After coming back down the hallway, to the right, behind the living room, is the kitchen.

Above is the view from the hallway.

Below is the view from the gargage door entry.Immediately at the bottom of the stairs is the family room. This is where Kuso plans to have dance practice with his group.

The built-ins will be great!At the bottom of the stairs, just outside the family room is a 4th bedroom.

With TONS of storage. Under the stairs and two full closets with shelves in the back!To the left at the bottom of the stairs is this storage room.

Between the storage room and this laundry room, there is going to be a 3rd bathroom.At the end of the hallway and connected to the laundry room is the potential for a 5th bedroom.

This will likely be Kuso's room to keep his work clothes, rugby clothes, dance clothes, etc.

Then on to the backyard.Above is the view from the garage door.

Below is the view from the opposite corner.

This flower pot is my first attempt at gardening on my own.

I also planted other flowers along the back of the house.

The west fence is covered with ground cover and bushes.

I'm basically going to watch it for a while to see what is what and start

making plans for what I would like to do to clean it up a little bit.

This whole thing started with an idea to move closer to our families, the babysitter, work, and all of our other activities. I suggested we rent a town home for a few years. That way, when we have another baby, there will be room. I saw prices for rent and thought 'we could buy one for that price.' So I started looking at purchasing a town home. Then I saw the prices for those and thought 'we could buy a house for that price.' So I contacted our long time family friend and realator, Jodee Smith, and told her my thoughts.

This house was the second house I looked at. When we walked to the front door, Jodee said "Lis, this is your house." I fell in love immediately. I took Kuso back to see it that night. It all fell into place (with the help of multiple emails, phone calls, and faxes) and now here we are!

Our neighbors are very nice. The Bishop of the new ward stopped by to introduce himself the day we were moving in. Other ward members have stopped by to introduce themselves. I feel comfortable where we are at and feel like "everything happens for a reason" is true.

If you are ever in our neck of the woods, feel free to come visit! Call first...I might need to clean up a bit!

Leila - 8 Months

On Friday May 14th, Leila hit her 8 month mark. I had taken her into the doctor just a few days prior. She is 1/2 ounce under 21 pounds. AND, that's after having diahriah for 2 weeks! Needless to say, she is healthy and strong. She beats All the other babies that I know that are close to her age in weight by around 3 pounds!

As seen in the picture above, she is crazy. She LOVES to hang upside down. Sometimes when she cries, I just put her upside down and she giggles.

Leila has a new best friend. His name is monkey. My brother gave me this Curious George toy for Christmas several years ago. I have had it on display in her room since before she was born. One morning, she noticed monkey and they have been buds ever since. She tackles him. She hugs him. She kisses him. She lays on him. She snuggles with him (when she goes to sleep in my arms and she has been crying and I'm trying to make her happy.)

Just staring face to face. She LOVES that he is the same size as her!

"Kissie Monkey." --and she does every time!

My mom put Leila in this box when I was moving stuff into the new house. Leila thought that was quite fun. At one point, we had the box closed up and she just sat inside quietly. Then when we opened the box, she laughed. Kuso had not seen this picture until last weekend. He laughed and thought it was the cutest picture of her. (Besides that she looks like an orphan!)

Saturday, May 15th, was a busy day. It was my 30th Birthday! And we were having a few friends over for a BBQ and to show our new house in the evening. So we had to go shopping. We didn't have time to let Leila be in her routine, so she came along. Well, her routine kicked in and she was nodding off while sitting up in the shopping cart. My mom carried her for a big, then we laid her down. She slept like this for a good 30 minutes before we left the store! Thank goodness we were buying those napkins!

Leila also had her first driving lessong this week. She was pretty good at it. We had to make sure she drove daddy's car first in case she crashed it!

Now, it's bath time. Her beloved bath time.

In our new house, our tubs are a little older, so they have that metallic hollow sound. She LOVES to play in the bathroom and pound on the tub. Just that entertained her the other day long enough for me to have a bath, shave my legs, and wash my hair. She was still just banging away when I was done. As you can see, she has many bath toys. This star fish is one of her favorites, mostly because it's easy to hold, easy to grab out of the water, and easy to put in her mouth. (Check out the Buddah Belly!)

She also likes to stand up in the tub. This is not so good. She is very strong, and has only started to slip twice, but all it takes is for me to be out of the room for 5 seconds and she could have a serious injury. Oh well...I guess that's why we alot time for the bath right?

Some other things about Leila...at 7 months old, she started sleeping through the night. Mostly anyway. One night, we were staying at my parents while we got our new house ready to move into. Leila had a ROUGH night. She screamed for 1 1/2 hours from 2 am until 3:30. Want to know what calmed her down? Kuso took her pajamas off and took her outside at 3 am. What a wierd child. But overall, she is sleeping much better. She would rather have "real" food than baby food. But she is a good eater. So far, she has eaten everything that has been given to her. She knows what soda is and that the straw goes in the mouth. No, she doesn't get it often, but when she gets a sip now and then, oh boy, does she love it! She has started to snuggle when she goes to sleep. She usually eats, then snuggles into the nook of my arm, then pulls herself up to lay on my shoulder. I love it. AND, she goes to bed earlier, so it gives me more time to clean up the house, or update my blog perhaps!

Leila LOVES to watch people. She will stare. She will pull herself into wierd angles to be able to watch what someone is doing. She still pulls in tons of comments about how beautiful she is and how good natured she is. Kuso and I have taught her "Aua!" (Which means "stop it.") She looks at us, then pulls her hands back from whatever we told her to stop touching...usually electrical sockets or my mom's plant.

Leila is now wearing 12month clothes, and even some of those are too small for her! Mostly the jeans. All the "stretchy" stuff will fit for a bit longer! She has been walking along furniture for close to a month now. She is starting to let go and stand up for a few seconds at a time. She also squats. Either to make the fall shorter, or just to rest then stand back up. So funny to watch.

I almost forgot to post this. She is SUCH a flirt! She taunts my dad and brother to tease her. Same with her dad. She plays on the floor at church and does something, then looks to Kuso and I for praise, THEN, she turns to the guy sitting next to us and laughs, and tucks her chin down and tilts her head to look cute. TWO WEEKS IN A ROW...she did this. Oh boy, she will be a handful that way I'm sure of it!

Leila is such a special blessing in our lives. We couldn't ask for a better child. We look forward to watching her continue to grow, but we already miss some of the things she has outgrown.