Happy Thanksgiving!

As I think about Thanksgiving, there are so many things I am thankful for. I'm so thankful for so many blessings in my life. I'm grateful for my family and the love and support they always are. I'm thankful for the fact that Ryan and I both have jobs right now to provide for our needs. With the economy these days, I realize that is something to be very grateful for. I'm also thankful for friends. I'm thankful for the opportunity to watch Nyah grow up each day and to see her smile and laugh which in turn makes me smile and laugh. I'm grateful that we are healthy. I'm also thankful for the gospel and our Savior who made it possible for families to be together forever.

I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving and thanks for the important part all of you play in our lives! We are so thankful for each one of you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Good Little Helper

So no pictures today but I thought I would share some of the new things Nyah is doing. She helps unload the dishwasher. She takes all of the plates and the bowls from the bottom rack and stacks them on the end of the dishwasher. It is so cute. I'm going to have to get it on video one of these days. I can't believe how big she is getting. :) My mom asked if she's careful and I would say she is very careful (as careful as a 1 1/2 year old can be). There have been a couple of times where I've been glad it's Corelle.

She is doing the actions to lots of songs these days (Eensy Weensy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Slippery Fish, etc.) so that's been fun to see. She is also a crack up as she sings E-I-E-I-O in Old McDonald. It's more like E-I-O but very cute.

Nyah will say "uno" and "dos" which is different than in English because every time I say "one" she just says "two". I can't get her to say "one". Funny girl. I also tell her all the time that she is "bella" (beautiful) and she'll repeat that after me. So we are working on our Spanish skills. At her little school they are starting a program with Mandarin Chinese and I just think that's funny. Spanish seems much more practical to me so hopefully they'll do both. You know me, I'm all about what's practical.

Well that was just a little bit of an update on Nyah. She continues to learn new words and loves to play with her toys. As we go upstairs at night she waves and says "bye bye toys". The word "toys" isn't super clear but distinctive none the less.

Adios!

I Love the Fall

We are having some great fall weather here in Colorado. I'm probably jinxing it but we haven't even had snow yet. There have been some brisk days but nothing too drastic considering we are nearly in the middle of November. Plus, snow makes for long commutes so that's another reason to just be grateful for this great weather! This post is going to be a random compilation of pictures I've taken over the last few weeks. I'm going to try this format instead of a slide show and see how it goes.

First is a funny picture of Nyah eating some chocolate pudding. She absolutely loved it! We need to try that again soon because it was too cute.

This is just a cute picture of her in her new hat I found. The new style must be hats because there was a hat for each outfit at Babies R Us! What a cutie.


The next couple are of Nyah and I enjoying the weather outside a few weeks ago while we were waiting for Ryan to come home from helping with an Eagle Scout Service Project.

Now on to Halloween. We decided to buy a pumpkin this year and thought it would be interesting to see if Nyah would want to participate in the carving of the pumpkin. Turns out she thought it was too slimy but enjoyed being part of the fun as long as she could use a spoon. :) Ryan was taking pictures but the pumpkin carving was actually his idea. Nyah has her eyes closed in this picture - maybe she takes after her Grandma. :)

I don't think Nyah really understood the whole concept of trying to get candy but she still had fun. We mostly just hung out and handed out candy and waited for the neighbors to come to us. Nyah didn't really want to pose in her Dorothy costume so we had to get the pictures of her "on the run". She did like having a basket with Toto in it though because it gave her something to use to carry around her juice and snacks. :) We did teach her to say "Toto" so she said that instead of "Trick or Treat". We even went to Ryan's office. You will see that she has socks underneath her tights. That's because I could only find red, glittery shoes that were a 1/2 size too big. Poor girl. She shuffled around at the ward Halloween party so I smartened up and put on the socks with her tights for Halloween night. :)

Unloading her juice and snacks....

This is Nyah with her silly smile.

We hope all is going well for all of you and that you are enjoying the fall as much as we are!

Visit from Shari, Lisa and Hallie

I just wanted to share a little about the fun visit we had the beginning of this month from Shari, Lisa, and Hallie. We had some great times together in those four, short days (they are always too short)!

We went shopping, went to the park, talked, played games, went to Monkey Bizness, tried twice to get Nyah and Hallie's pictures taken, (did I mention talked) and just hung out. It was great. Here are a few of the stories that you need to know a little more about.

First of all, Hallie wasn't too sure what to think about all of us strangers (who can blame her) and decided she would just as soon be with her mom. Well, when Lisa needed to get ready, Hallie would settle for Shari and me. One day though Hallie had enough of us and wasn't too happy with the whole situation and Nyah was deciding she didn't know what to think about everything either. Anyway, I decided it was time to get outside and give two not-so-happy kids a wagon ride. So that's what Shari and I did. By the time we had gone around our little circle one time, Hallie was nodding off and ready to tip over. Shari laid her down so she was in Nyah's lap. You will see Nyah wasn't so sure what to think of that and it was hilarious to watch her expressions. :) Then Nyah decided if Hallie could sleep in the wagon, she wanted to give it a try as well. When Lisa came out, Hallie was still asleep in the wagon and so we decided to take them for a ride down to the park. Nyah's hair wasn't done so you will see some pictures of her with crazy hair at the park. As any mom knows, having happy kids trumps everything else though so that's how it goes. :) There are some great toys at the park and Hallie and Nyah had lots of fun and Shari and Lisa took some great pictures! I owe them big time. :)

We spent a bunch of time one day getting the girls ready for pictures. I wanted to get Nyah's 18 month pictures anyway and we thought it would be fun to have some "cousin pictures". We went to Kiddie Kandids at Babies R Us and it did not go well. I hadn't tried there before but Nyah and Hallie (mostly Nyah) decided they didn't really like the photographers and Nyah wouldn't stay in one place. I thought maybe Nyah was just tired so we tried again after nap time, but it still didn't work at all so I finally gave up. What a mess. Then we were by Monkey Bizness so we went to give that a try. There were slides and all sorts of toys and both of the girls absolutely loved it. It was a good time and way better than trying to get their pictures taken!

I just want to thank Lisa, Hallie, and Shari for coming to visit. Ryan thinks that my sisters should move here so I have somebody else to go shopping with and to get pictures, etc. since that all falls on him right now. :) Maybe someday we'll all live closer to each other again but for now, I'm just going to enjoy the visits. :)

October and Fall is Officially Here

We have had some fun times over the last month that I can't wait to share. We went to Utah the last weekend in September for Emily's baptism (Adonia's daughter). We hadn't seen them since last November so that was fun. Kaiden and Nyah had fun playing together. Emily's baptism was very nice and we're proud of her for her decision. :)

Nyah did great in the car. We wondered how it would go but she was a trooper. We did quite a bit of entertaining with songs, coloring, reading books, etc. but she did well considering it was about an 8-hour drive each way.

We also took Nyah to Elitch Gardens a weekend during September. It was 1/2 price on the admission that weekend so we decided to give it a try. There weren't tons of rides she could go on but probably around ten. She had fun on all of them except the tilt-a-whirl and we will know not to try that again. She survived but definitely wasn't impressed as it was spinning around. She had a "death grip" on Ryan and me. They have a big play area where they can climb and go down slides and she loved that. She wasn't a huge fan of the ferris wheel because the loading and unloading process is less action than she prefers.

Nyah is 18 months old now and really starting to talk quite a bit. On the way to Utah we counted and came up with about 30 words she can say. She is running and just loves to play. She is getting to be very independent and starting to express her opinions.

Shari, Lisa, and Hallie also came and visited us last weekend. We are going to write more on that next time after we get some pictures. I did awful taking pictures that weekend and am begging Shari and Lisa to share their pictures. :)

We hope all is going well for all of you!