Playtime videos

Lyla loves to dance to the music that her toys play.

Paul started juggling the other night and Lyla loved it! She giggled and laughed and was entertained for so long!

Birthday Videos

We were so excited for Lyla to get her first real taste of chocolate on her birthday, so we made her a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. We were thinking she would just dive right in and love it, but it didn't go quite as planned...

Since she didn't seem to like the feel of frosting on her fingers, we tried another piece of cake without any frosting...

when that didn't work, we resorted to what we knew could never fail with her:

Here are videos of Lyla opening her presents and then playing with her puzzles. They are kinda long so don't feel pressure to watch them all!

My amazing friend Kjerstin sent Lyla the cutest gift ever! She made an apron, chef's hat, and two oven mitts that all match an apron Kjerstin made for me recently! They are so darling- pink and brown which of course I love, and Lyla already loves playing with them. I'm slowly making her some felt food (all with lots of help from Kjerstin who is the expert) and this gift goes perfectly!
We had to try our aprons on of course! And Lyla actually left the hat on for at least 10 seconds which is a record. Thank you Kjerst- I absolutely love the set and can't wait for you to come back up and play with us!!

One year birthday!!

I can't believe my baby is already one year old! We celebrated her birthday last sunday- just the three of us! Here she is sitting with all of her presents, and trying to take her hat off...

I thought this was a darling picture of her giggling- and showing her teeth. She has two on the bottom and two on top, but they are both on the right side so it looks off-centered. She's getting close to having the other two top ones come in though!

We got one good picture of her in the cute dress and hat that my mom gave her, and the next second the hat came off.

We forgot to take pictures of what was inside the presents, but Paul's going to try posting videos of her unwrapping them. She loves her puzzles from the Rumsey grandparents and the tractor we gave her! We also gave her a little laptop since she is constantly trying to play with ours.

We made a chocolate brownie for her cake...we'll tell you more about that fun experience when we post the videos.

All ready to dive in! (gotta love the big belly) And this is as close as we got to her wearing her birthday crown.

It was fun to celebrate with her and to think of the last year. She has changed so much and it's so much fun to play with her and to see her fun personality. Her favorite thing right now is to press all of the buttons on my phone and then to hold it up to her ear and talk to dad. She hangs up on grandma at least 5 times daily because anytime I'm on the phone, she takes over and quickly finds the end button. She pulls herself up on everything but hasn't really stood by herself or walked yet. I'm thinking we really need to get over the phobia of shoes before she walks or it will be a problem any time we go outside... and she actually seems to be getting worse in this area instead of better. She gets hysterical if we try to put them on her, and she even cries & screams when we have shoes on and tries to pull them off. Even the feet of her pj's have started bugging her so we have to hide them with a blanket when she's awake. She is so sweet though and I love her little hugs, and the way she pats my shoulder or back when I hold her. I'm excited for the next year and all it holds for her!

My sister is the most amazing dancer in the world!!!

My amazing, gorgeous, graceful, sweet sister was chosen to be the sterling scholar for dance from her high school!! She has worked so hard for years and spends at least three hours, 5-6 days a week dancing. She endures blisters, broken toenails, bruises, lack of sleep, and many other painful things to be the best dancer posible. She came to Idaho Falls and performed the Nutcracker with a group up here and I loved watching her performance!! I also can't wait to see her dance next weekend down in Utah.

This is her dressed for Snow in the nutcracker:

Looking tan in Legend of Timpanogos:

Waltz in the nutcracker:

Arabian in the nutcracker (one of my favorites:)

And the maid. This year she's in lots of parts, one of them being a parent at the party. I'm excited because that means she's on stage for a long time, in a pretty dress and ringlets.

Ok, I'm done bragging. I'm so excited for her that I just couldn't help myself!

Birthday fun and an active girl!

Lyla is growing so quickly and developing quite the personality! She definitely rules the family even though she can't talk yet. She is very stubborn when she wants something and will point and grunt until I figure it out, and if I'm too slow she'll wiggle out of my arms and take off crawling to find what she wants.

Apparently she's going to be quite the musician- she loves playing the piano and will stand on her tiptoes in order to reach the keys. She also loves dancing- she loves her toys that play music and she rocks back and forth and waves her arms while they play. Her favorite song is Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Buble. At least 15 times a day she points to our cd player until I turn it on, and then she keeps pointing until I get to the song. Then we dance around the house while it plays and she loves it!! Before it even ends, she points for me to turn it on again- definitely helps me get my exercise in!

She also loves playing a little keyboard that we bought on craigslist.

I love her focused face. Sometimes she'll even stick her tongue out of the side of her mouth as she concentrates.

I've wanted to start playing the piano more often, but Lyla never lets me. This is how it always goes:

I sit down to play when she's distracted with something else but she immediately crawls over to me and begs to get up.

I let her beg for a minute so she turns to daddy with her little puppy-dog tears which he can't resist...

So she ends up on my lap and I'm frustrated for just a second...

until i remember how cute she is and then I let her take over the keys. As long as she takes piano lessons without complaining, I'll forgive her for never giving me a chance to play anymore. :)

We celebrated Paul's birthday a few weeks ago. He woke up sick on the morning of the big day, but he found enough energy to act happy and open a few presents.

I made a chocolate swirl cheesecake which was too much work and didn't taste very good, but Paul said he liked it. Lyla helped him blow out the candles and tried to grab a handfull of cake when we weren't looking...

I can't believe we'll be celebrating Lyla's 1st birthday this weekend- she's growing up way too fast! So, I need some advice on a few random things. Let me know if you have any good ideas about:

1) Activities to do with Lyla all winter when we can't go outside. She gets so bored and I run out of things to do with her at this age...

2) How to get her to drink milk or eat anything other than crackers and peaches.

3) How do you deal with the mess of a baby learning to eat? I'm by no means a neat freak but I feel like there is constantly food all over the floor now and it's driving me crazy! And I haven't even let Lyla feed herself with a spoon or fork yet so I'm sure it will only get worse.

4)Is there a good way to print off my blog posts to use in a scrapbook? I'm not good at scrapbooking and I need to find an easy way to keep on top of it all

Halloween

We had a great time celebrating Lyla's first halloween! She and I both dressed in orange and black for several days before the official day- I inherited my mom's love of dressing for each holiday! Paul's work had a fun party and his department picked the theme of charlie and the chocolate factory. They asked Paul to be Willy Wonka and he had a great time! He spent a lot of time decorating and it looked great- they even had a glass elevator!

Lyla was a cute little bumble bee and amazingly she stayed in most of her costume during the party!

At least for today, running is better than chocolate!

After five days of being stuck inside because of the cold, this afternoon was sunny and 55 degrees so I was able to run again! Even though it had been less than a week since my last outdoor run, it felt so good to get out in the sun and to move. I couldn't get enough so I kept running and running, and when I was too tired we started walking, and when we were bored we called a neighbor to join us. Running is such an important part of my life- I feel so strong and happy and free when i'm out there and such a feeling of accomplishment after I'm done. I'm grateful for a healthy body and for the warm, pretty summer months when I can go outside every day. Winter always helps me to appreciate the perfect days even more. Hopefully the thought of another running season will get me thru the next several months...

Shoes & bows

Lyla has decided that she hates wearing shoes or socks which is going to make the freezing winter so much fun... She also can't handle having a bow or headband on her head. Paul held her hands in this picture to keep her from ripping it off. I'm not bitter at all that I spend hours making cute bows for her to wear and they only stay on for 2 seconds :)

Does anyone have any tricks for keeping either socks and shoes on her feet, or bows/hats on her head? I'm thinking we'll need to figure both of these out before we can go outside during the next few months.

BYU Game!

We went to the BYU vs San Diego game a few weeks ago and had a great time! My parents were nice enough to watch Lyla and it was so much fun to be in Provo and to watch an exciting game. The weather was perfect and I felt homesick as I watched the sea of blue fans and remembered the many fun years spent there, and as I looked at the gorgeous mountains outside the stadium. Idaho has been nice so far but there are still so many things about Utah that I miss. I'm sure that with time it will feel more like home here in Idaho...

Josh and his darling fiance- Alisha sat in front of us. Such a cute couple!

Paul's brother Jared came with us which made it very fun!

Guess who's crawling???!!!

Dear Teething...

Oh unwelcomed guest, why must you stay so long? Isn't 2 1/2 months enough time to do your job and leave us in peace? In the beginning it was exciting to think of the fun we would have introducing new foods, but right now my half-asleep brain is trying to remember what benefits teeth even have. 1:00 am can be such a dreadful time, as can 2 am and 3 am and 4 am... I spend so many nights angry at you for hurting my little girl- my bloodshot eyes watch her struggle and my exhausted arms can barely hold her as she screams and wiggles in pain. Is there any end in sight to this current predicament we find ourselves in?

- A desperate mom

Updates

Cute picture of Lyla with Paul. She's been pretty stranger shy lately and usually has to be held by me all the time, but sometimes she just wants to be close to daddy. Last night she woke up because her teething is bugging her and she just wanted Paul to hold her. Every time he tried to hand her to me to feed her she would scream and scream and reach for him! I was a little worried but it was pretty cute too. We're so excited that the Grossarths have moved to Orem!! Lyla and Kaitlyn are starting to enjoy playing together.

I know I already wrote about Tyson leaving on his mission, but I just found a few more pics of the day he left. He's in Guatemala now and doing so well!

Lyla and I went to Lake Powell with my family while Paul was at a conference in Salt Lake. Lyla did so well the whole time and seemed to really like riding in the boat. Every time the engine got loud from going fast, she would fall right to sleep and take a nice little nap. She and I got on the intertube behind the boat for a few minutes- can't you tell how much she liked her lifevest? :) Apparently this one isn't the best design...

The weather was so nice and the water was perfect!

Summer isn't summer until we swim in my parents pool!! I really miss living near them and swimming 5-6 days a week. Lyla loves playing in the warm water.

Grandpa thought it would be fun to take Lyla down the slide.

I guess she isn't a huge fan yet... maybe by next summer she'll like it better.

Paul's mom and brother Justin came to visit us for a few days. We had a great time together- this is at the driving range.

They all hit for awhile and then Paul had me try a few. As I walked up to get ready, Lyla just started laughing and laughing. I was a little offended that even my little girl knows how bad i am at golfing! :) After that though she would crack up every time anyone hit a ball- I guess she liked the noise. We tried to record it but only got her to laugh once: