Waiting for Daddy

Being silly waiting for daddy to come home

I'm such a monkey and climb on everything!

I love the pillows on the couch and love throwing them all on the floor.
Silly mommy always picks them up over and over just so I can throw them again!


I'm outside now, which means my daddy finally got home. He always gives in to what I want.

Playing with my new bucket mommy bought for me.

I'm such a big girl now that I am walking EVERYWHERE! This is so much FUN!

Watching Maggie fetch the frisbee, oh how we miss Sydney Poo.

Everyday I get to go help my daddy water his garden. He is growing all the veggies to make us some yummy homemade salsa. I even get to help him water my very own tree.

Daddy is so much fun!! I love when he comes home to play with me.

Jayla's First Piggys

So this one is a bit blury but she looked like such a big girl!

She is camera shy.

I love Jayla's hair. She was blessed with a head full every since the day she was born. The doctor even said, "she had the most amount of blond hair she has ever seen on a baby". Then when she was around 6 months old, it started falling out, but before we knew it, it grew right back in. We get compliments on her hair constantly. People always think I style it and have it cut. All I have ever done was stick a barrette in to keep her bangs out of her eyes. Most of the time it is just crazy bedhead~UNTIL NOW~ We FINALLY got some piggys. I was dying laughing this morning at how cute she looked. It was hard getting her to sit still, but we got them in. She is starting to remind me of myself at that age. My mom always sported pig tails in my hair. Yep I too was blessed with a head full of blond hair :).

Girls Night

Me, Candy, and Alicia

It is not too often that I get the chance to go out. Well at least not like I use to ;). I met my cousin Candy and her friend Alicia out for drinks at Sangria Lux Lounge. It is a very cool place. If you ever get the chance you should check it out (for all the west-siders).
As always I had a blast with these girls. I got to finally hear the gossip of the John Mayer cruise they just went on. Oh how jealous I am, now don't get any ideas they were good, but lets just say they made the Star magazine. I'm so proud of you Candy!! Love you girls!

Fun in the Sun

Today I wanted to get a little sun so Jayla and I put on our swimsuits and headed outside. Our pool is still freezing so I thought I would copy Aunti Jenni (with the bowl of water). Jayla was having a blast slashing the water out of the bowls. Fifteen minutes went by and along came a big black spider, that ran across my leg. So out of the sun we went. I wanted to try the pool out before we headed inside. Like I said FREEZING, but Jayla didn't seem to mind.

Being a Mommy

OK Candis I'm giving this a try. Thank you ;)

To all the Mommy's feel fry to give this a try. Post 5 things you love and 5 things you could do without when it comes to being a Mommy.

So here I go.

5 things I can do with out:

1. The whining/crying/screaming. I have anxiety that comes over me when Jayla cries or whines. I wish I knew how to better cope with this. For now I just give in and give Jayla whatever it is she wants. Yes I know this will bite me in the butt later on.

2. The never ending alarm clock around 6 am. I forgot what it is like to sleep as long as you wish. Now you have to keep in mind that I bartended for 9 years. I have never been a morning person and I am still trying to adjust. When do they start sleeping later?! ;)

3. NOGGIN!! That is all that plays on our big screen. Our DVR is even full of her favorite show from Noggin, "Jack's Big Music Show". It use to come on in the early mornings but now it comes on after she is asleep so daddy was nice enough to record them (like she would ever know the difference). This is sad and those of you mommy's that have not discovered it yet, you will in time. I know Jenni has my back on this.

4. Poopy diapers. I have such a sensitive nose as it is and you add a messy diaper to the mix-NOT GOOD. I am not sure if me gag reflux is getting better or worse. It seems the older Jay gets the stinkier her butt becomes. (She definitely gets this from her daddy)

5. Shopping with Jay. It use to be so much easier when she couldn't move. Now that she is walking, it is a nightmare. She tries to get out of the stroller and that brings on the screaming (refer back to #1). If you see me out in pubic, it is probably best you just ignore me. Dealing with HYPER Jay is a full time job. You would have thought we had a boy on our hands, I thought girls were suppose to be more mellow. YA RIGHT!!

5 things I LOVE and could NOT live without:

1. This may sound gross but I love the smell of Jay's feet. I could kiss them and smell them all day.

2. Coming home from school (If she is still awake). Normally daddy gets this, but she gets so excited and has the biggest smile. She greets me with big hugs, kisses and lots of giggles. This makes all the hard work of being a mommy feel so appreciated and you remember that this is what it is all about.

3. Jay's personality. She is such a goofball. She tries everything and anything to get a laugh out of daddy and me. I know she doesn't get this one from her daddy. Yep that's right we got a wild one (like mama) on our hands. Poor Jearel! My favorite is when I get her to "shake that booty"
She is a dancing machine when the music comes on. With her personality comes her ever so LOVEABLE laugh, that is so contagious.

4. Watching Jayla sleep. Ever since the day she was born I could sit there for hours and watch her. She is so beautiful to me and in these moments I get to take it all in. She looks so peaceful and innocent. I just want to protect her from everything and keep her safe like that forever.

5. Having Jearel as her daddy. He is such an amazing dad and I always knew he would be. He has so much patience for us both. My mom is always surprised at the stories I tell her. I just have to keep reminding her we are in the year 2009 and things have changed. But maybe they haven't changed so much. I know plenty of dads who don't do half as much as Jearel does. He has never hesitated when it comes to his girl. He bathes her every night, changes just as many poopy diapers, always feeds her dinner, and gives so much to our family. Without him things wouldn't be the same.

Forgot One!!

Jayla never smiles for the camera. This was a rare one and I just realized I forgot it on the Easter post. So here it is!!

Easter Day

Easter Day was a great day, except for the fact that my life is consumed with studying endless hours. It has been a hectic past 2 weeks with test, after test, after test. So I spent most of my Easter weekend STUDYING and STRESSING!

Jayla was super spoiled from all her grandparents. She received a package from her Grandma and Grandpa Skorstad on Friday. She shook the presents around so much that she ended up opening them before Easter. I told my mom to send dresses, because they are more manageable with her walking. She picked out the cutest and I can't wait to put her in them.

On Friday morning she also got an Easter Basket from "Nana" and "Papa" Garrett. They went all out with some very cute things.

Then came Easter morning. I was shocked at how much the Easter bunny spoiled her. New clothes, shoes, swim suit, pool toys. The list goes on and on. I don't remember the Easter Bunny bringing me all that good of stuff ;)

Easter morning she got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Riley and Great-Grandma & Grandpa Morris. They brought goodies as well. Great-Grandpa is trying so hard to get Jayla to love him. She is a little frightened of him. You can see in the picture below she was trying to keep her eyes on him. ~She will come around Grandpa :)~ I know she loves you deep in her heart!



Jayla hanging with her favorite person lately "Bam-pa". She started saying Grandpa this past weekend. Of course Grandpa Riley was the first to hear it and we were a little skeptical of this. We wanted to believe it and we were just gonna go along with it to make Grandpa feel good, but then Easter morning I heard her say it several times. BAMPA. She also started saying Papa for her Grandpa Garrett. We pulled up on Monday morning and she pointed to their house screaming PAPA. The list goes on with what she has started saying lately.



Her first Easter egg hunt at her Aunti Kendal's house (my cousin). She was good at finding them and going over to pick them up, but she didn't want to put them down in the basket. So as you can imagine, she only ended up with 2 eggs because she only has 2 hands. Silly girl!



Walking everywhere now. She ended up with 2 walking injuries that day. I was at her side every second after these injuries. I'm so over-protective. How do I get past this?! Have another baby right?!

Yep crazy kiddos went swimming. The pool water was freezing. I forget when you are that young it doesn't matter. We decided to keep Jay in the hot tub (again over-protective). Plus there was know way I way jumping in after her if something was to happen. Okay maybe I would have, but I wasn't taking those chances!

She loved it. Which was no surprise, she is definitely a water baby!!

Jayla and her cousin Sorella. Sorella is such a little sweetheart. Jayla followed her everywhere.

Sorella giving kisses

This picture melts my heart. He is such a good daddy and looks so good with 2 girls on his arms.

My precious Jay

This picture was the night before Easter. Mommy had to do most of the coloring. I think Jay wanted to drink the dye rather than color the eggs. Maybe next year?!

Thank you to Brad and Kendal for a great day. We had so much fun and as always it was so good to see everyone. Thank you for the amazing food. You guys did a great job. MMMMM, I am still thinking of that yummy carrot-cheesecake. I got to get that recipe from you, Aunti Marsha.

It was also nice to see Kevin, Tracy, and the kids, well minus Chase. I sure hope he is feeling better.

We love you guys.

MY SNUG BUG!!

ENOUGH SAID!!!

Saying Goodbye Isn't Easy To Do

Our dog Sydney was laid to rest yesterday. We found out she had cancer 3 months ago. She was doing great up until this past weekend. We couldn't let her suffer any longer. She was an amazing dog. Perfect in every way!! When Jearel and I met he had Sydney and Maggie, and I had Baby. Together we got Ozzie (our cat). My sister said it perfectly, they are like our children, just with furr. We knew this day was coming and it was harder to take than I had imagined. Jearel sat up with me all night telling stories of Syd as a puppy and we laughed and cried through all the wonderful memories that she has left with us.

Sydney's passions:

She loved to swim. She loved the water in our pool to the ocean in Mexico. She would chase her own bubbles for hours. She even loved to chase the water coming out of the hose.

She loved her Grandma Riley more than words could describe. Sometimes we thought she would rather live with her than us.

She loved to run around the bay in Mexico, chasing the birds, the waves, and chasing her sister Maggie. She just loved Mexico!!

She loved to play with her Frisbee for hours on end. Nothing would stop her from playing.

She loved to play ball by herself. She would chase a ball around the yard while pushing it with her nose and running after it.

She loved wrestling with her sister Maggie and bossing her around.

She especially loved sleeping in-between her daddy's legs at night. Her and Maggie are big daddy's girls.

~We will miss you Syndey. You will be in our hearts forever. Thank you for being a part of our life. We are forever blessed because of you.~

~Thank you to Phyllis for making this sweet picture in memory of Syd. Also thank you for all that you have done for her, and for us. She was very lucky to have had a wonderful Grandma like you. You and Larry spoiled her rotten. We love you~

Not so into Mr. Easter Bunny

As you can see, this didn't go over too well. Jearel's suggestion is "he is going buy an Easter bunny outfit and wear it around the house to get her use to these occasions"

We had a great time watching all the other kids get super excited to see the Easter bunny and then scream and run when it was their turn. I don't blame them for being scared, he was kind of creepy. Poor kids!

Jay's walking skills!!

WE GOT A WALKER!!!

It's officially OFFICIAL!! Daddy and Mommy couldn't be any more proud of their baby girl! It started on Wednesday, April 1st. Yep that's right on April fool's day. We weren't fooled, Jayla was seriously walking!!

Jayla spent the whole day with Grandma Riley and when she came home, she was standing up all on her own and walking away. She has been taking steps here and there, on her own for awhile, but not like this. She walked clear across our living room just like a little professional. We had tears in our eyes and couldn't stop giggling with joy. It is truly crazy how fast Jayla is growing. I love her more and more with each and everyday.

Meanwhile as we watched her progress with these past few days, we realized we needed to grab this on video. She will be running before we know it! I unfortunately don't have the video uploaded to my computer to share. I need a little help from Jearel with that one. And then I may need a little help from Candis (again) to get it on my blog ;).

Keep your eyes out for it. You don't want to miss this. It is the cutest thing ever!! Okay, well at least Mommy and Daddy think so!!

~Don't worry Candis, I got your emailed saved, but I am calling you if I have any problems!~