The month of Rocktober!

I have decided that October is one of the best months of the year. Not only is it my birthday month, but it's still great weather and there's always lots to do. There's been something going on every weekend this month. First, my birthday, then the BYU football game, then pumpkins, and Sea World.

Kyle, Sam, Kate, and Owen came down for the BYU vs. SDSU football game. Sam and her family are die hard cougar fans; her dad even flew down just for the day to watch the game. Of course BYU beat the Aztecs; I always feel like a good alumni when I go to BYU sporting events!

In addition to going to the game, Bailey was able to play with her cousins for the weekend. It was the second weekend in a row that she was able to play with them, so she loved it. She can say both of their names really well and they are all just going to be best friends when they grow up (that's what Sam and I keep telling ourselves). I dressed Bailey up in a dress that's almost too small and some adorable boots that are still way too big. The boots had to quickly come off, but the fun lasted all weekend with the cousins. We put Kate in her princess dress that Toni bought for $1 and she loved it. She felt like such a little lady; look at her face! Then the two of them read a book together. I just love these pictures!



It's a tradition to go to Bate's Nut Farm (or Nate's Butt Farm as my family calls it) to pick out our pumpkin for Halloween. Last year I put Bailey in a cute Halloween outfit and posed her with the pumpkins, this year it was hot and the posing didn't go all so smoothly. All Bailey wanted to do was to try to pick up every single pumpkin that she saw; it was hilarious! When she wasn't picking up pumpkins, she was walking around pointing out everything that she thought was, "Ewww!" That is Bailey's latest favorite word. I did get a few cute posed shots, but posed shots with a walker doesn't always go as planned.

She was trying with all of her might to pick up this pumpkin that probably weighed the same amount as she does.

If you just glance at this picture, it looks like she's sitting in a crate of oranges, but they're just mini pumpkins. She picked out a white one that she likes to walk around the house with all day long. Here's a funny video of what she did for most of the time at the pumpkin patch:

Last week we went to Sea World because we bought passes and we figured we should get some use before they expire. Bailey loves Sea World because it has her favorite character--Elmo. This time we rode the few rides that they have and she loved it. She also fell in love again with Elmo and this time Zoe. She was so excited to see Elmo she didn't really know what to do with herself; she just kind of ran in place and drooled a lot! When she finally got enough courage to go say hi she couldn't contain herself.

She loves Elmo so much! Some days she'll just march around the house chanting, "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!" It can't be annoying because it's so incredibly cute! I know that she is in awe everytime she sees him in real life. She can even kind of sing the lalalala part of Elmo's World song.
It may look like she's running away from Zoe in this picture from fear, but she just kept running back and forth between Zoe and us. She was so excited and she can run quite quickly now.
It was a great day because it wasn't that crowded so Bailey could walk up to the front of everything. As she was pounding the glass to get the polar bears attention, the polar bear decided to walk right by. It was so close to her it was cool! In this same exhibit, they have a polar bear cave that you can explore. We were walking through the cave when the polar bear noises started playing in the cave and Bailey was petrified! She was so scared she started to cry and wanted out, but not before I got a picture of it!

She like to watch the penguins and loved feeling this wall of snow/ice. It was a great day!

The Magic Kingdom

October 10th, is my birthday. Since it conveniently fell on a Saturday this year we went to Disneyland! Kyle, Sam, Kate, Owen, and Ty all came too so it was a really fun day. I was worried about the kids having meltdowns and turning into monsters, but my worries were for nothing. All three of the kids were magically wonderful the entire day--maybe that's why it's called the Magic Kingdom.

Bailey's first ride of the day was Dumbo. Kyle, Sam, Ty, and the kids were right at the front of the line so we handed Bailey over to Ty and off they went. She would alternate each trip around being happy and scared; this picture is kind of in between.

For some reason, our next choice was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I would not recommend this be the second ride of the day for little kids. Kate and Owen were petrified of this ride and let us know how they felt about it. Bailey was pretty neutral to all of the rides; I think she was just amazed at all of the sounds, colors, and flashing lights. Kate and Owen were a little more clued in and knew that some of this stuff was scary. We were trying to get them happy again by driving this car.

After that ride, we went on Small World and that cheered up all the kids. They were really good all day. Bailey and Owen even took about an hour and a half nap. We went on the teacups, jungle boat, Haunted Mansion, the rockets, the choo-choo train, Roger Rabbit's ride, and the carousel numerous times.

I swear that the kids favorite time of day was waiting to get into the Tiki Room. We were outside for about ten minutes waiting for the next show to start. They ran around, looked at the fountains, and then played with these big leaves forever. Really, who needs to spend money to entertain kids when you can just give them a big pile of leaves!

Here are all of us, minus the husbands who get very motion sick, crammed into one tiny teacup. I thought it was hilarious and probably the most people that have ever fit into one teacup.
Here's Bailey and Brian later in the day in a teacup that did not spin:

Ty and I had to take a picture together because his birthday is one week before mine, so it was a birthday celebration for both of us. I thought it was really funny to walk around all day and look at all the people with birthday buttons and realize that they all have a great birthday date--10/10. I've always thought it was a great day for a birthday; I really like things that come in patterns.

I love this picture above because it sums up our day at Disneyland: Bailey had a ton of fun adn we had fun watching her take it all in. We had fun too, but it's way more fun to do something with your kids for the first time and see how they love it.

Before we left we took a classic group shot on the back side of the castle and road the carousel a couple more times. Bailey had so much fun on the carousel, it was hard to get picture of her sitting still and looking at the camera. I didn't want the day to end because we had so much fun. It was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday and I'm so glad that everyone was able to come with us.

By the end of the night, all of the kids were exhausted but still happy. Here's what they looked like:

For My Sista!

Keri has been bugging me for the past two weeks to post more pictures of Bailey, so this is for her! Since I've been back in school, life has been a little busy. I'm back to teaching and coaching everyday, while also fitting in Bailey time, Brian time, and some me time--so that means that there's no time left for blogging.

The Last Weekend of Summer: Labor Day Weekend

It was such a beautiful weekend; we went to the beach on Saturday and Monday. I thought it might be super crazy since it was the last weekend of the summer, but both days were perfect. It was great weather and the water was so warm, even Brian went in.

This picture is of Bailey with all of her beach toys. How many toys does one little girl need? If you're Bailey, it is exactly this many. Earlier in the summer, Bailey was always trying to take other kid's toys. Once I started bringing my mom's huge bag-o-toys, she was so happy. She would just sit in the middle of them all and smile.

This next picture, is what happens when we forget the gigantic bag of toys--we went old school on Labor Day. Bailey's toys consisted of a Big League Chew bucket, a couple of plastic cups, some cones, two measuring cups, and a random frisbee. That was basically everything that I could find in our garage. It just made me laugh because she was still just as happy.

On Saturday, Toni built her a lounging area and she loved it!

Just to prove that I did go to the beach with Bailey and not just drop her off all day :)

I just thought that this was hilarious, but Bailey didn't agree with me. She looks like an old fashioned girl wearing a swimcap.

My Little Professor:

My second day of school, Bailey had her third eye doctor appointment. I was hopeful that it would be good news, but the verdict is glasses. Our doctor said that we could wait until December, so I am. But the glasses are going to come whether I like it or not. One of the moms from my field hockey team works for a kid eye doctor, so she brought me some sample glasses so I could start to visualize what she'll look like. What do you think?

I know once we find a pair that fits her and take the stickers off, she'll be the cutest tiny professor that you've ever seen. I just think that she's already the cutest thing you've ever seen, so I'm a little sad. I'm also really worried about her keeping them on her face, but the doctor assures me that she'll be so amazed at how well she can see that she'll keep them on. She's far-sighted, so she can see everything. She'll just encounter a hard time keeping her eyes focused when she looks at things upclose--meaning without glasses, she'll have a hard time learning to read. I know that it's a good thing and for everything else that could have gone wrong with Bailey being so early, this really isn't a big deal, but it's still hard for me.

18 Months Old (now 19):

Last month we took Bailey to get pictures for her 18 month old pictures. She's now 19 months old, so that's how fast time flies! I put her in her adorable sailor dress. When we got to the studio, they had this awesome motorcycle for kids. While we waited, we let Bailey be a biker babe.

I truly can't believe how big Bailey is! I love this stage of little kids because they are learning new things everyday. She runs around and tries to repeat lots of words. Her vocabulary consists of: mama, dada, Doby, bye, hi, night night, happy, up, down, jump, lots of animal sounds, and lots of jibber-jabber. I know that any second she's going to start saying everything. It also makes me kind of sad because she's not my little baby anymore--she is a big kid! She's just begun to want to do things herself instead of coming to mom for everything. I just love her more and more everyday, even when she's grumpy and teething.

My little California Girl!

DJ B in the House!

Today Toni and I went shopping and bought Bailey something she truly could not live without--an adorable skater girl hat. She wore it around the house tonight and loved it! She kept in on while she watched and danced to Yo Gabba Gabba before she went to bed. I know that she knows when she looks super cute because she gets this look on her face, like watch what I do!

Here she's striking a pose to the music on her show.

DJ Lance Rock needs to watch his back because DJ Bailey is gearing up to take over his job on the show!

He's Real!

If we could read Bailey's mind, I'm sure she would have been thinking, "He's real! Elmo is really alive and a lot bigger than he looks on Sesame Street."

We went to Sea World last week for a few hours in the afternoon. Our first stop: Sesame Street's Bay of Play to see Elmo and Big Bird. As soon as we saw them, she was so excited! She kept reaching out and trying to grab them and would then look at me with the biggest smile on her face. It was funny because a lot of the other kids around her were squirming trying to escape and run away, but not Bailey. We came back to see Elmo again on our way out of Sea World. There was a huge group of kids that were taking a picture with Elmos, but Bailey didn't let that get in her way. She first tried to climb the fence to go get him and then she just ran up to Elmo and gave him a big hug! It was really the cutest thing I'd ever seen.

All she wanted to do with Big Bird was grab his beak, so she did.

We did go see some fish, sharks, polar bears, and penguins while we were there too. Bailey did love seeing all of the the other animals. She licked a lot of the glass clean for Sea World, so that was a bonus.
She laughed a lot in the penguin exhibit. I kept telling her to do happy feet, so she was stomping her feet the entire time. Not that she's ever seen the movie Happy Feet, but that's what I alway say when she does that.


I love this picture because you can see her reflection in the glass. I'm not sure she always knew what she was looking at through the glass, but she sure did love it.

Michigan: The Final Installment

So here's the rest of our trip to Michigan, told by pictures and short blurbs:

Sunday we went to Kim and Jesse's amazing house and had a family BBQ. All of the little kid cousins ran around the front room to burn off their food. They did stand still for a moment so I could take a picture.

Here are the two cousins--Bailey and Mallory only two days apart.

Bailey loved to eat Aunt Harriet's sparkly necklace.

Here's Bailey with Gram and Pop and a group shot.



We did quite a bit of driving, and this is what Bailey thinks about riding in a car seat for that long:

On Monday, we explored the town of Rochester. We visited Aunt Nancy at Cold Stone; I believe it was Bailey's favorite part of the trip. She mixed her own ice cream and Aunt Nancy let her eat as much as she wanted and run around the store like a crazy sugar baby!

After the ice cream, we went to a park to let Bailey burn off some of her energy. She really liked sticking her face and hands through the holes of the tunnel.

It was a great trip to finally be able to see where everyone lives and experience Michigan as a family. I especially appreciated the great weather that they ordered just for us. Our flight back was much easier than the flight there--thank goodnes!! Thanks for all of the fun and we will be back again some day to do some more exploring.

Please Say it Ain't So!!

I don't even want to write this becuase it means it's actually going to happen, but it's August already! I have officially decided that August is the worst month of the year for one awful reason: school starts :(

I really do like August, at least the first 18 days of it before I have to go back to school on the 19th. I know I won't get much pity because I have been off since the end of June, but maybe feel sorry for Bailey (because she can't hang out with her totally cool mom all day long) and Doby (because he soon will spend most of his day just sitting on his chair waiting for anyone to come play).

So I'm going to live my last almost two weeks of summer to the fullest--beach, books (maybe), more swimming lessons, scrapbooking, movies, making my quilt (that I intended to do back in July), shopping, more beach, family, fun, and just being a little lazy if I want to. Notice I'm not adding on there thoroughly cleaning my house to get ready for the year because that is definitely good summer fun. If I don't post for a while, it's not only because something won't let me upload pics to my blog (sorry about the pic-less post), but also because I'm busy having fun or being depressed.

Long live summer!!