A Girls Night Out...

... with my girl Candis. We had such a great time, talking, laughing, and more talking. I think I was laughing the entire night.

Candis asked to meet up for a few drinks last night (gosh knows we needed them). She lives in the east valley so we decided to meet somewhere in the middle. Of course all I could come up with was- Hurricane Bay. This was just suppose to be our starting point, but with all of our talking we never made it anywhere else. I was having so much fun that the entire night slipped right by us. I think we both stayed out a bit longer than we intended. We even had our dancing shoes on and never found the time to break them in ;).

Before we said our goodbyes it dawned on us that we missed out on some photo opps and lost that fresh look when you first set foot in the clubs.

Here was take one. Believe it or not we couldn't find anyone to help take a picture.

Take 5 (found a not-so-good photographer)
This one is my favorite!!

Candis~ Thank you so much for the night out. I had so much fun with you. I feel like we have been friends for 20 years. Next up- your neck of the woods and maybe a spot on your couch- HA- and I will have to go kidnap Jenni so she can't say NO (we love our Jenni)!

Thank you Mykol for being Mr. Mom so we could have a much needed girls night.

"BAUBOOLS" Bath

We introduced Jayla to bubble baths and now she can't live with out them. She is a big fan of her "baubools". This gives her all the more reason to love her baths (not that she didn't already). Jayla even got to move in on mommy's bath tub. It is like a mini swimming pool for her. As you can imagine she is in water heaven.

This is my new favorite picture of Jayla. She is such a "cheesse" head- he he.

(I love seeing all her big girl teeth, especially her molars)

Time To Pack Up My Backpack

~insert song here from Dora the Explorer "Back pack-Back pack"...OH BOY I need to get out of the house more~

Yep it is back to school I go! Jayla and I had a very fun summer together. She is looking forward to getting back to her Grandma's houses and I am ready to get to work. I went to visit with an ASU academic advisor over the summer to start the process of transferring over to their Upper Division Nursing program. Thanks to a very good friend of mine, Nicole, who gave me a boost in that direction. If all goes well I will be in the nursing program Spring of 2011. It seems so far away but it is actually faster to get your BSN, than just your RN at a community college (the wait list is 1 1/2 years). I will be attending GCC one last semester and it's off to ASU to finish my pre-req's. Then I will go straight into the upper division nursing program (no waiting). Your grades play a huge roll in who gets in and who doesn't. You can pretty much say if I don't maintain a 4.0 I will not be getting into their program. It is very competitive but I am so ready for the challenge. I have a full load this semester and with the looks of it, lots of homework in my near future. Poor Jearel, I will need to apologize to him ahead of time for what is to come (buckle your seat belt babe)!
And for those of you who are wondering, yes we are still trying for baby #2. Might as well make it more challenging!!

Headband OBSESSION

Jayla takes it upon herself to play with the things in my bathroom cabinets while I am blow drying my hair. This time she made it all the way to the back of the cabinets to where I neatly stack all of my headbands. She always takes them off my head (when I wear them) just to put them around her neck. Why?! I am not sure because I rarely ever wear one. I never thought in a million years she would put every single one of them around her neck. I know it is hard to tell in the pictures but there are at least 10 around her neck. I was dying laughing when I saw her like this. Then she couldn't stop laughing with me. She is such a goof ball.

Oops one fell off. Time to put it back.
HE HE!! This is so fun mommy!

Family BBQ

Jearel and I invited some of my family over for a BBQ and swimming this past Sunday. I was feeling pretty guilty that my Aunti Suzy and Uncle Phil have not seen Jay since her birthday. So we finally got our butts in gear and made it happen. My cousin Candy came with her boyfriend Tom as well as my brother and his two oldest boys. It was the weekend after my brother's birthday so my Aunt had the brilliant idea to bake him a birthday cake (it was so yummy).

My Aunti Suzy trying to light 32 candles.

Happy Birthday Adam
All of us :) (Jayla was yelling CHEESE)

My Uncle Phil, Aunti Suzy, cousin Candy and Jayla

Jayla was trying to blow help blow up her water wings (my Aunt thought they would work but NO Bueno, she couldn't move her arms)

Jearel being crazy with AJ

Jumping over the rafts.

Cameron showing off his muscles.

Jayla was wiped out by the end of the day. This is the best snuggle time for us!

Thank you so much Aunti Suzy and Uncle Phil for bringing all the goodies (presents to the yummy food). Thank you to Candy for the cookies and fruit. We love you guys so much. Lets get together again soon :)

Vanessa's an Old Lady

Well not really, as we celebrated her 29th birthday at Lisa G's Wine Bar (I wish I was 29 again). It was a perfect night with just the girls. I was hoping someone (Camille, Sarah, Vanessa or my second mom, Cathy) would have emailed me some pictures by now. This is the only one I got of the night, I guess I was too busy having FUN to remember to take pictures.

Camille, Sarah, Vanessa, and Me

Thank you girls for a great night. Happy Birthday again to my little sista, Vanessa. I love you girl!!

Sleepy Head

Jayla fell asleep while eating her chicken nuggets (her lunch). I wish every nap was this easy!!!

She looked so peaceful and awkwardly comfortable in her high chair.

Our Healthy 18 Month Old

Wednesday was Jayla's 18 month well check and went like this:

Jayla was running around like a wild woman in the waiting area, she was making friends with all the other babies and kids. She also could finally climb on and off all the chairs like a big girl.

Here's our happy little monkey climbing up and down, up and down!!
For those of you who have not seen "the look", here it is!!

As always we were filled with nothing but good news. We have a very healthy little girl and have been very lucky that she has never had a cold, ear infection, flu...etc. Just that UTI. I know we need to count our blessings and knock on some wood.

Jayla's stats:

Weight: 24 lbs 12 oz (55th percentile)- Height: 32 & 1/2 inches(75th percentile) - Head: I forgot, but it was just average!! PHEW, those Garrett's have some big heads!

Jayla with the best pediatrician around, Dr. Cwick. She really loves him as he is always so good to her. Jay also loves all the nurses in the practice. She gets so happy to see them!
We were a bit worried about Jayla's eating habits and hyper-ness, but were reminded that we do have an 18 month old and to not expect anything different. Her doctor was also impressed with her speech, he said what she is doing is expected from a 2 year old (must be because her mama and daddy both talk a lot, HA!).

The best news about this visit is she is done with her immunization shots until she is 4 years old, all we will have to worry about is her yearly flu shot. WAHOOOOO!

One and a Half Years Old

Today Jayla Adisyn turns 18 months old, officially making her a year and a half. I feel like the first 6 months of her life went by so slow and since she turned one these past 6 months flew by. She is a little spit ball of fire and keeps, both mama and daddy, on our toes. She is full of so much personality, there is not a moment that goes by that she is not making us laugh. I know every parent says this about their kids, but she really is so smart. We really don't think of her as a baby, but as a little girl now.

Here are some of the reasons we think Jay is one smart cookie:

She has been talking for quite sometime and within the past two weeks she can literally repeat everything we say. Time for us to watch those not so good words, if you know what I mean. I still keep a list running of the words she says, but at this point just know she can say just about anything. She is a little parrot, just like her friend Lo. It's about time :).

She even asks for things by saying "pease (please)" to everything. For example: "pease tookie", "pease bee" (her bee crackers), "more pease". It makes it hard to say no when she is saying please!!

She is very good at naming all the different animals and the noises they make.

She can count to 5.

She can point to your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, toes, tootsies (feet), hair and tells you them by name while doing this all on her own.

She loves, LOVES to sing songs. Even though you can't understand the words she is trying to sing, she sings loud and clear while dancing around.

She is even showing signs of being ready for the big potty. She says "pee pee" and runs to the potty and wants to take off her diaper so she can sit on the potty. Nothing has come out yet but it's a start. She also has brought me her diaper a few times with poop in it. I know this sounds gross, but it is not that often that she does not have some sort of bottoms on over her diaper. But when she is just free diapering it, she brings me her poopy diaper so she can get a new one on. Thankfully she doesn't get any poop on her in the process. She also tells me when she has went poo-poo. Usually I smell it on her first and ask her if she went poo-poo and she shakes her head and says "ya".

She is a big fan of saying no and pointing at the same time, this mostly comes out when she is yelling at the dogs. Yes mama and daddy yell at the dogs a lot.

She can also tell you how old she is. All you have to do is ask her and she will point up her one finger with a big smile.

She is very good at helping put away her toys where they belong. No she doesn't do it on her own, but if I ask her to help me clean up she knows right where everything goes. She even does a better job then her daddy ;).

Our favorite thing she does is tells us "I wah u". Her daddy worked on that one for awhile and now she tells us it all on her own. Makes all the tough times as being parents well worth every second. Even though we had know doubts she loved us, it is so sweet to hear the words.

~I know I am missing a lot of what she does, but you guys get the point on how smart Jayla is, or at least her proud parents think so :)~

Here is my little 18 month old muffin, this morning, saying "cheese".

Mama let her pick whatever she wanted for breakfast (it is her day to celebrate)

She picked her honey graham bees, of course.

We have her well check appointment at 4 today. So I will give everyone stats on how that all goes later.

~Happy 18 months, big girl!! We love you more than words can say and are so proud of you.~

~Also Happy 18 months to Jay's best friend Lo. We love and miss you. Can't wait to see you on Thursday!!~

A Week With My Family

Monday we headed out on a plane to Bloomington, Ill, to visit my sister and her family. We originally talked about going over the forth of July, then there was talk about them coming here, but the dates came and went. Then my sister decided they were not able to make it out this summer (my nephew is having surgery), so we decided we would just go there. My brother, with his two older boys, were already out visiting my mom and dad in Missouri and they planned on driving up (7 hours) to see my sister this week. We thought it would be nice for all of us to be together for once. The last time we were all together like this was at our wedding over 3 years ago. It was a very short trip for us, as we returned Friday afternoon, short, but long overdue. We had so much FUN!!!

Jayla was a happy girl for the first 30 minutes of our flight out there. She then screamed for 30 minutes, until she passed out for the rest of the flight. We thought she was a nightmare until we took our flight home which made her look like an angel. She SCREAMED and kicked the entire 3 hours of our flight home. We knew she wouldn't enjoy it, because she is such a busy body. Sitting still is not her thing. We just never dreamed it would be that horrible. At one point I looked at Jearel and asked if he still wanted more kids. His answer was of course NO. Lets just say we will NOT be flying anywhere in the near future. And YES we are still trying for more kids.

The first night we got there we went to watch my 4 year old nephew Tyler play in his first T-Ball game. It was so cute watching all the 4 year olds just stand there watching the ball go right by them.

Jayla and Erin (my 10 year old niece), watching Ty play ball.

Erin and Jay. Jayla was so attached to her.

My handsome little nephew, Tyler.

Jayla was ready to play ball. Hopefully she will be a 3rd baseman like her mama :).

Daddy was trying to teach her how to swing the bat.

Jayla got some work outs in on the treadmill. The first time she got on it, she was pretending to run in place. My guess is she has seen people do that at the gym we go too. She is one smart cookie.

A little more exercise on the BIG ball. This was her favorite of course.

My brother and his two older boys, AJ and Cameron.

My sister's house is BEAUTIFUL and HUGE. Their entire neighborhood was breath-taking. If the winters weren't so brutal, I would move there in a heart-beat. We spent most of our time in the basement, at their fully stocked bar. We called it "Jodi and Tom's Cantina". We never had to leave the house. Drinks, food, family, and loads of fun while never having to worry about a DD. It was perfect.

Jayla was obsessed with this little car. I now know that we have to go buy her one. She climbed in and out, in and out and honked the horn over and over.

Jayla playing with her Grandma (my mom)

This was one of the few pictures of me, since I am always the one behind the camera.

Enjoying a ICE cold beer from the Cantina.

My mom with AJ and Erin, watching Tyler play another T-Ball game.

Jayla with all of her cousins from my side of the family (minus Brody my brother's youngest)

They all played so well together. Jayla really likes being around other kids.

She was so spoiled by them. They all took turns reading her books.

We took all the kids to a park. Something you can not do in Phoenix right now. The weather was so perfect.

Jayla was having so much fun on the swings.

We didn't know that the park was going to have a splash play area. Jayla went right in and got wet of course. Here my mom was trying to give her some flowers (maybe to help get her out of the COLD water)

Jayla was done with the flowers in all of 1 second, then it was back to the water.

Jayla trying to get her cousin, Cameron, off her car so she could go for a drive.

She couldn't figure out how to drive anywhere so she just pretended she was moving.

Silly girl!!

Jayla has a hard time around men. I felt so bad for my dad, he tried and tried to play with Jayla, but she was scared. This was the only time that I saw her finally warm up to him and was full of smiles.

My family all in one room. This doesn't happen much so I ran upstairs to capture the moment.

My world!!! I love my niece, nephews and daughter more than words can say.

Grandma and Grandpa Skorstad (my mom and dad) with almost all of their grand kids.

I'm hoping someday Brody will be there too.

Jayla saying goodbye to Grandma. They were only able to stay a few days. It is always so hard not having my parents living close to us. I know Jayla loves and misses them so much, gods knows I do too.

My sister's neighborhood is very family oriented. She started a thing called Flamingo Friday's to get all the neighbor's together every Friday for drinks and play. It is very casual and all the neighbor's take turns opening up their porches/yards to everyone, Happy Hour style.

On Thursday you put out these pink flamingos in your yard so the neighbors know where they are going on Friday.

Jayla was having fun playing with the "biries".

Jayla had so much fun playing in Erin and Tyler's sandbox. She even asked her daddy to build her one at our house :).

Jayla is such a lover, well only when she is not pinching. We call her our sour patch kid. First she is sour (pinches) then she is sweet (kisses and hugs). She really only pinches with excitement like a love pinch, but man does it hurt ;).

Jayla began to try and climb on top of the car. Her cousin Tyler sat up there all the time, why couldn't she?!

She was singing me a song here. She sings all the time.

Erin is such a good little hair dresser. She always wants to style my hair.

She even let me borrow a sweat shirt of hers because it was so cold in the basement.

Thanks Erin!!

Erin bailed on finishin my hair. She had to go play with some of her friends, so Jayla took over.

It is so cute how Jayla catches on to things so fast.

Tyler even had to get to work on my sister's hair.

Jearel spent most of his time behind the bar, doing what he does best, mixing us some shots and cocktails :).

Erin and Jay were BFF's by the end of our trip. Since we have gotten home Jayla keeps walking everywhere saying "ERIN".

They were playing monkey see, monkey do at the airport.

This was the last of my happy girl. Then onto the LONG plane ride home.

~Thank you sooooo much to my sister, Jodi, and Tom for everything. You always make us feel so welcome and spoil us rotten. We had so much fun, maybe a little too much. We are exhausted after a week of drinking and little sleep. So worth it though ;).

Thank you Mom and Dad for making the long trip up. It was so nice to have everyone together. There is NOT a day that doesn't pass with out missing you all. We love you all so much. Lets try not to let too much time pass before getting together again. Here's to hoping you all can make it this way for the holidays.

XOXOXO~