Halloween

Halloween after Christmas, I know....

But just in-case you still wanted to see our beautiful Princess here it is.

Jayla loved, I mean LOVED Halloween this year. She absolutely has a thrill for Horror (just like her mama). She loved going on walks every night, leading up to Halloween, to see all the scary decorations on the houses. She nick-named a few of the houses. One was "Mike the Monster" another was "the blue light", and then of course Mike had a friend down the street, "Scary Billy". Billy was a mummy, and sometimes he was sleeping (knocked over in the yard). Anyway, she often asks to see them still, but we told them they went to sleep inside their houses. It's way too cold out for them now.

Back to this Horror thing. Jayla's favorite movie right now is Wizard of the Oz, but in the past it has been Spider Man (with the green Monster--her favorite), Jurassic Park, and she's OBSESSED with Scooby Doo (hello everything is a Monster on that show). Mommy has always LOVED a good scary movie, starting when I was 4 years old. I suppose I should have made Jayla a scary monster instead of a beautiful princess. There's always next year...

Here she is....

Here's "Scary Billy's house"

Here's the "blue light house".

Our friend/neighbor was so excited to see Jayla.

Grandma and Grandpa never miss a beat with little miss Jay.

Cinderella and her Prince

I just can't get enough of her purrrty hair.

October Fun

October was a BUSY month (okay let's just set it straight, the Garrett's are always busy) full of work, school, and play. I'm going to keep the details short on this post with lots of pictures, of course. Enjoy!!!

First up...

Glendale Community College had a carnival so we decided to take Jayla. So constantly asks to go to school with me, so I saw this as the perfect opportunity. She now thinks I play at the carnival all day. HA! Don't I wish?!

Daddy took Jayla up on the 'Fun Slide' I thought she would freak at the top, but it was not until the 3rd bump, on the way down, that her face expressed a SCARED look (you can see this in the next picture).

Jayla had the death grip on her daddy.
A short ride on the "big horsies"

"Driving the boat"

Daddy won her a "daddy bear".

"Driving the race cars"

Grandma and Grandpa Riley, daddy bear, and Jay

Next up for October...

Our annual visit to the pumpkin patch with our good friends, and family.

Jayla loved petting all the animals.

Feeding the goats with Auntie Camille

The "baby cow"

Our little BEAUTY!

"Duckies"

Attack of the "mean chickens"

(she got bit by one shortly after this picture was taken)

"baby piggies"

Miss Avery loved the piggies

A fun, BUMPY, squished, train ride (hopefully next year Jayla will take this ride ALONE).

Jayla and her friends, Lola and Camden.

All the girlfriends of girlfriends

I feel so lucky to have such close friends (Jenni, Camille, and Candis) who all had little girls close in age. Watching these little girls together gets better and better every year.

Our attempts for a group photo. If only you could have been there to see them/us in action.

(Thanks Jenni for some great ones)

Jay-Lo share a very special bond and a very special birthday. Jayla just lights up whenever Lola is around. They both laugh and giggle non-stop.
It's the sweetest thing EVER.

Beautiful girls

Last up pre-Halloween dress-up....

The night before Halloween Jayla spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Riley (Jearel and I both worked). Jearel's mom decided to get out Jearel's old bunny costume (that she made) from when he was Jayla's age and put it on Jayla.

They did a trick-er-treat trial run.

It was the CUTEST thing. She looks so much like her daddy here, even though I was a bunny at the same age as well. I will have to dig out the pictures and do a comparison later (packed up in moving boxes somewhere).

For Halloween Jayla was Cinderella. Stay tuned for that post...

A Birthday to Remember

As I turned 32, on September 20, I was reminded of how lucky I am. My weekend started off with meeting some of my closest friends out for night at the Sandbar. Once again being in the bar industry, wouldn't you know I'm friends with the manager up there, and she gave me a bottle of my choice, and a cabana for all my friends (Thank you Kelly and Chris. I love you girls). I am always spoiled by the ones I love the most. I'm so blessed to have the most amazing friends for up to 27 years (and counting). It's true what they say "it only gets better with age", and I must say, having the friends I do, just keeps getting better and better with each and every celebration. I love you guys, thank you for making it out, and please send over pictures.

On Sunday Jearel had BIG plans for me. I had no clue as to what he was doing, but he was smiling from ear to ear for weeks about it. He got a kick out of teasing me, especially because this was the first year my guesses were oh so WRONG.

Here's how my surprise went....

Jearel told me to be ready to go by the time he woke up on Sunday. Jayla and I were waiting patiently for daddy to wake up. When he did, I was told I needed to pack my bags for overnight, as well as Jayla's (he forgot to mention this before). So we rushed around in a hurry. Then Jayla came up to me and said, "Mommy do you want your presents?" I said, "Sure baby." Then she said, "You help me get it, it's too heavy." "Do you know what it is Jayla?" "Oh yes mommy, it's pots and pans!!! *Big smiles*" So here came daddy with two packages, that looked nothing like pots and pans.

Jayla had to help of course!
Nope NOT pots and pans, but a NEW laptop. I was so excited I was crying!
I needed this oh so bad, and with just Jearel working sometimes you just need to put things on the back burner, until NOW. WAHOOOOOOO!!

Jearel only gets the best of the best when it comes to that stuff, and I must say it is pretty SWEET!

After that we went to lunch so I could spend sometime with Jayla because she was headed to Grandma's for the night, and we were headed somewhere?!

My two LOVES!

Finally after an hour and a half in the car, we arrived in Cornville to visit their wineries. I've been wanting to do this FOREVER. We went to 3 wineries in Cornville, and then headed out to dinner in Sedona, and then stayed the night up there.

Here we are at the second winery, Javelina Leap.

Then it was off to our final spot, Page Springs Cellars. It was beautiful there, and by far the best winery up there. It was the biggest of the three, and located right on the creek. There was a lady doing messages in the vineyards, and they played the BEST music, all from Maynard James Keenan. He is the leader singer of Tool & A Perfect Circle, two of my fave bands. Plus he owns Arizona Stronghold, one of the biggest and best vineyards in AZ. He is directly involved with the wine making for Page Spring Cellars, and his very own winery/tasting room in Jerome.

The employees all shared some great personal stories of Maynard, which just made that place all the better for me.

A little horse shoe action!

Walking down to the creek.

Blood into Wine is a documentary about how the wine making business started in AZ, and how Maynard is one of the main reasons Arizona's wineries got so big (no I have not watched it yet).

That's my boy Maynard-HA!

Merkin Vineyards 353 Chupacabra, is pretty tasty :)

Yes Chad, I have a bottle waiting for you!!

Down by the creek with a bottle. Can't get any better than this!!!

And then your teeth get nice and red after you've had one too many, it's just too good to stop!

Sedona's beauty on our way to dinner.

The view off the balcony to our hotel room.

Monday morning (my actual birthday) we drove up to Jerome.

We enjoyed some lunch. Check out the size of that yummy burger.

HA HA!

After lunch, I had to go visit Caduceus Cellars & Merkin Vineyards Tasting Room. All of Maynard's wines, of course. I was the only one doing tastings, so Jearel could get us home safe. It was a VERY COOL place, but to be honest, Page Springs Cellars was by far the best one yet.

After we got home, we headed to BJ's Brew House, for dinner with our pretty girl.

Jearel and Jayla, thank you so much for the BEST birthday ever. I love you two more than anything, and am so thankful for the life I have with you.
I am one lucky girl!! XOXOXO

And a HUGE thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Riley for watching Jayla so Jearel and I could have some much needed alone time. We love you!

Just in case you wanted to see the present opening LIVE.