Christmas 2009

Christmas was great this year! We had a blast in Utah celebrating with family. Makayla loved seeing her Grandma and Grandpa. They spoiled her with lots of love. One thing that Grandma loved to do was take a nap with Makayla. She would brag about how she could get her to sleep, since I have such a hard time getting her to go to sleep for her naps.

Here they are taking a nap. Secretly I think my mom enjoyed them because it was an excuse for her to get to take a nap and no one could give her a hard time.

We also got to see Caleb's brother, his wife, and their little girl. Makayla loves her cousin Maddi! It was great to see you guys!

Christmas dress from Grandma!

Isn't she beautiful!

On Christmas Eve we decided to make a gingerbread house! It was a lot of fun! Makayla had so much fun eating the candy as we were making it. When it was finished we put it on the piano and every time we couldn't find Makayla all we had to do was go to the piano and there she was taking candy off the house!

Such a cheese ball!!!

While we were making the house Caleb thought he saw something run from the chair to the couch, but didn't tell anyone anything, and then a little bit later my dad jump out of the chair he was in and said he saw a mouse run behind the entertainment center. I was freaked out! They couldn't get it so we went on with our Christmas Eve festivities. When we were reading the story of Christ's birth we were interrupted again with my brother seeing the mouse and then all the men trying to catch it and get rid of it. In the end Caleb caught the mouse and released it far away from the house. It was a pretty funny night and I will never forget it! If you ask Makayla about the mouse she will tell you all about it!

Christmas morning was so much fun this year since Makayla was at an age where she understood how to open and enjoy her presents. We left all of her presents at home, because taking them on the plane back and forth wasn't a fun idea to us! She got to have two Christmas' one on the real day and one when we got home. Pictures of that to follow later. Don't worry she still had plenty to open on Christmas with all that Grandma and Grandpa gave her.

Makayla showing off her cute Christmas P.J.'s.

She loves Santa Clause and was so excited to get these.

Play blocks?

You could hear her asking this all the time after she got these.

She is such a good helper. After she was done opening her presents she was there to help everyone else open theirs!

Makayla and her Mommy on Christmas Day!

We had a wonderful Christmas and we are so grateful for the true meaning of it all! We love the Savior and are so grateful for his birth and the opportunity to celebrate it! We are also so grateful we were able to share it with the ones we love! We hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!

Temple Square 2009

So, I am going to be playing catch up from our trip to Utah for Christmas. I have a lot to write about and so I will be making a few entries to cover them, so that I don't have one long post.

One of the first things we did when we got to Utah was go to Temple Square to see the lights. It is funny how when you live in Utah Temple Square can seem like no big deal, but once you leave it is something you miss. (maybe that is just me) Anyway it was a blast and even more fun because Makayla was with us and she loved them!

We went with my family and had a great time!

It was pretty cold the night we went, so we had to bundle Makayla up. Now doesn't she look so warm and cozy!

How long do you think she stayed in the stroller.......?

Not very long!

Makayla and Daddy!

Uncle Cory, Makayla, & Uncle Eric!

They love her even if she isn't too fond of them all the time!

Grandma, Makayla, & Grandpa!

These two adore Makayla and she sure loves them!

Our Little Family!

The hat she is wearing was mine when I was a little girl. I thought it was so cool that it was in good enough shape for her to wear this year!

The whole gang!

We had so much fun! It was great to be all together!

Stay tuned for more of our trip to Utah and Christmas!

Family Pictures 2009

So a few weeks ago we had family pictures taken for the first! Makayla is 20 months old and I was starting to feel a little guilty about it! We had a friend do it and she did a fabulous job! She has told me she will make sure we do them regularly while we are out here! Check out her photography blog here. Thanks Becky!

I just love this one! The light hitting Makayla is perfect!

Look at her little tongue!

I love my family!

She had so much fun playing peak-a-boo!

Gotta have one of these shots!

SQUIRRELS!!!

Don't they just look so cute?

That is what they want you to think, but they really aren't all they are cracked up to be! They are annoying!!!!

What is she talking about you are asking yourself. Well about a week ago Caleb and I heard something in our walls and in our attic. I kept telling everyone that we had squirrels in our walls and no one believed me. They said it is probably just mice, even better thought right? Well I was right and they were all wrong. Caleb found a hole outside up by our window and sure enough squirrels going in and out. Needless to say I called the complex they sent someone out to patch the hole and set a trap in the attic to catch the squirrels. To date they have gotten 3 out and they think there are still more up there!!! They told me they will keep setting the trap until they are all taken care of when that will be no one knows. Having them up there sure makes for a hard time sleeping! I swear they are going to break through the wall at any moment.

I chose the picture of the black squirrel because we have tons of those out here and the first two they took out were black ones. Little devils! This last one was a gray one and I got a picture of it in the cage to prove to everyone that I am not crazy!

Not the best picture but you can at least see that there really are squirrels in my walls!

Just one more thing to love about Iowa I guess!

Thanksgiving Week

What a full Thanksgiving week we had!! It all started with Caleb's 28th birthday. Since he had a test the next day we didn't do much celebrating on his actual birthday, but we did find time to open a few presents and enjoy some "birthday" cake!

Enjoying his presents!

We didn't have a traditional birthday cake this time. Since we never eat them all I decided to something different. We really like Papa Murphy's cinnamon wheel, so that is what Caleb got for his birthday cake. Might I add it was delicious!!!

Caleb's birthday wasn't the only thing happening this week as we all know, it was also THANKSGIVING!!! This is my all time favorite holiday, although Christmas come in as a close second. I really like this holiday because it was always a time for ALL of my family to get together. This year was different instead of having Thanksgiving with my side of the family we got to celebrate it with some of Caleb's side of the family. We drove to Missouri where Caleb's mom and two of his brothers live. His sister also came from Kansas. We had lots of fun hanging out and especially playing games!!!

The girls enjoying a break from the dishes on Thanksgiving.

The boys taking care of business, the dishes. Aren't they the best!

One of the greatest things about being in Missouri for Thanksgiving was the fact that Makayla got to get to know some of her cousins better. She was in heaven being able to run around with 9 of her cousins! They were so cute with her and by the time we left she was asking for all of them by name!

Makayla and Savana

These two are the closest in age of all of the cousins there. They didn't really start to interact until the last day, but when they did it was so cute!

Makayla really took to her cousin Amber. She wanted to play with her all the time. Amber was so good to humor her and took really good care of her!

Makayla and Ben!

I didn't take this picture but was happy to see it on my camera. Look at how nice they are playing. (Notice the BYU shirt Makayla is wearing. Even though we weren't in Utah for the game we still showed our team spirit, and it must have worked because they won!!! Go Cougars!)

Makayla was so tired one night she fell sound asleep on Aunt Cami as she read to her. Everyday she would ask if she was going to see Cami that day.

Makayla and her daddy ridding in Uncle Quinn's dune buggy.

Climbing a tree with daddy is so much fun!

While there we also had the opportunity to go and shoot REAL guns. I wasn't too sure I was going to like it, I am not a fan of guns at all. Caleb really wanted me to go and try it, so I did.

I wasn't very good with this one, I guess I will never be as good as Detective Oliva Bensen, rats! I did better with the bigger one which was a 22 riffle. I am still not a big fan of the whole idea of guns.

My handsome husband! He was a natural, and might I add very hot!

Makayla enjoyed her self as well. Everyone thought she wouldn't like all the noise, but she didn't seem to mind it at all.

I know you thought we were done with Caleb's birthday, but my wonderful sister-in-laws put together a birthday dinner for Caleb while we were there. It really meant a lot to Caleb, since he doesn't get these all the time. Thanks so much Yvonne and Jamie!!!

We had a great Thanksgiving and we are so thankful for all that we are blessed with in our life. We are especially thankful for our families and all they do for us!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

(Sorry there are a lot of pictures on this one, I just couldn't leave any out!)

Happy Birthday!!!

HAPPY 28TH CALEB!!!

Today is Caleb's birthday and what is he doing......STUDYING!! Yes you read that right. My dedicated husband has a big test tomorrow so instead of celebrating his birthday he is studying! That is one of the reasons I love him so much. He is a very dedicated man not only to his school work, but also to his family. I couldn't ask for a better husband for me and father for our daughter.

We have done some birthday celebrating already and we will do more later this week.Pictures of the birthday fun to come.

I am so happy to have Caleb in my life!

Happy Birthday!!!

We Love You!!

Sur-"PRIZE"

SURPRISE!!!!

This is the face we got when we introduced her to this:

We had a service auction for a Relief Society activity recently in my ward and one of the things being auctioned off was a playhouse. Anyone who knows Makayla knows that she would love to have one to play with. Well I ended up getting it and we just had it dropped off to us the other day. We had the missionaries over for dinner that night so Caleb couldn't get it put together before she went to bed, so she didn't get to actually see it and play with it until the next day. Boy does she love it!! Almost everyday she will ask "Prize?" and walk to the door that leads to the basement. All she wants to do is play with it all day long.

Here she is waving bye-bye to me as she is shutting me out of it so she can play with daddy. She always wants daddy to come inside and play. Good thing he is such a great daddy and will do whatever she wants (boy does she had him wrapped around her finger). He even built a play phone out of cardboard to replace the one that is suppose to be there but isn't. Next on his list building her a cradle for her babies! When does he have the time? I have no idea but I know he will do it and it will be great!