A Healthy Baby Girl!

Our little Jasmyn Kiona was born!She weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 19 in. long.

She really enjoyed her first bath--it calmed her right down.

Here she is already wide-eyed during her first few minutes of life.

Because she was born the week of Christmas, the hospital sent us home with a large Christmas stocking she could fit in.

At Home:

The kids were not allowed to visit at the hospital, so they were very excited to see the baby for the first time when we brought her home.

We are so happy to have you finally with us, Jasmyn!!!

Daddy-Daughter Date

Jayda has been wanting to go ice skating and since it isnt the safest activity for me right now, Lehi decided to take her on a Daddy-Daughter date.

Jayda did pretty good for only having been ice skating once before, but she did take a pretty serious fall and hit the side of her face pretty hard on the ice, so she decided she needed a little help (I didn't even know they had walkers for the ice):

She had so much fun. Thanks Dad!

Oh, and here is what Tai and I did at home:

We lounged around, watched Monsters Inc., and then Tai went to bed...aparently he needed three binkies (he couldnt fit the third one in his mouth--darn). Yeah, yeah, we will try to get rid of those things sometime after the baby comes. Oh, and I am sure Lehi would like me to explain that Tai is borrowing Jayda's purple blanket while his other more masculine blankets are in the wash. :)

Christmas Lights

Before Thanksgiving we have been seeing a few houses with Christmas lights up and we point them out to the kids. So lately anytime Tai sees lights at night, be it car headlights or just any regular lights coming from a house or office building, he says "Wow, lights!" So it was nice when we took the kids on our annual adventure to the Christmas lights at Temple Square so Tai could see some real Christmas lights. Jayda thought they were very pretty, too.

Tai loved the fountains more
than the lights, I think.

Autumntime Fun

One day this last week, Lehi said he would entertain Jayda while Tai and I took a nap. When I woke up and looked out the window to our backyard, this is what I found. Apparently Lehi and Jayda raked the gazillion leaves in our yard into a humongous pile. I grabbed the camera and a grumpy Tai (he must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed after his nap) and we went outside to join in on the autumntime fun.

This pile of leaves was as tall as Jayda and you can't really tell from this picure, but it is a very long pile, too.

Tai did not want to have anything to do with the leaves at first ("eeww" he said) but after seeing the fun Jayda was having, he decided to finally join in.

Halloween

So I have this amazing talent of forgetting my camera when I want it the most. This Halloween we went to my mom's work to do a little trick-or-treating and they even had a spook alley set up (that was not extremely kid friendly but Jayda still liked it.) Jayda has been bugging me ever since she first saw the spotlights in the sky advertising the local haunted houses about going to one. I keep telling her they are too scary for kids and I am not going to pay money to take 5 steps into one and then turn around and leave because she is too scared. We also got to go to a "haunted yard"--a haunted house set up in someones backyard that was pretty good--even complete with the chainsaw guy at the end. Jayda wanted to go through it again. Tai on the other hand was not too happy with that particular adventure. When Jayda was Tai's age, she even seemed to like (or at least not mind) the haunted houses then. I guess she is just one of those who likes the thrill of being scared (I know I'm not). So anyway, the only halloween pictures I got were taken by our friend Kati who did an awesome job chasing my kids (okay, mostly chasing Tai) around to get some good photos. Thanks again for the free photo session, Kati! Here is some of her awesome work:

Oh, and Grandma Suzy made Tai's costume (it has now been worn by Jeremy, Jayda, and Tai--the time she put into making the costume has been put to good use), and Lehi painted Jayda's face.

The countdown...

I have only 8 weeks left of being pregnant! And since both Jayda and Tai came exactly 2 weeks early, maybe I have even less than 8 weeks to go...*hope*hope*. Since the baby is due the week of Christmas, I figured I better be prepared, just in case. I have finished all of the kids' christmas shopping, and I even have the christmas cards mostly done. I still have a few baby-related things on my to do list: buy a new carseat--our other one is now too old, re-adjust the bed of the crib to the higher position--at least I dont have to pull it out of storage which is one advantage of having children within two years of each other, potty train Tai--okay so this one is not very realistic but it is a nice thought, and pack a hospital bag--well this one seemed so important the first baby go round but now its like "whatever". 8 more weeks, yipee!

The month of September

So it is the middle of October and I am finally getting September's pictures on here. I guess it could be worse, though, right?

Jayda's first day of Kindergarten:

One of us walks Jayda to the bus stop--Lehi happened to be off work on her first day of school, so we all walked together. She was so excited for school that first day, and here we are a bit more than a month later and she still loves it. She is getting so darn smart, too.

Tai wants to be a cat:

Tai and uncle Jeremy's cat have so much in common. Tai really loves to explore the cat's playhouse. He even likes the cat toys. Now if that cat wasn't so feisty, they might actually get along really well together.

A missionary farewell:

Lehi's sister left for her mission this last month. Here we are at the MTC to see her off. Jayda even wrote her first missionary letter. It is so cute. And yes, that is my little baby bump starting to show.

Changes

I have a few friends who have moved, had a baby, changed jobs and/or went through other big changes this summer, but luckily (so far) my life has stayed pretty simple. Here are a couple of little changes we have experienced this summer:

Jayda got a haircut!

This was a big deal for her. She has been telling me for quite some time that she never wants to cut her long "princess" hair. So it surprised me one morning during a typical fight over how her hair desperately needed to be brushed (forget styling--she certainly does not have the patience for that), then of course the tears and screaming as--despite my best efforts to be soft--the brush pulled at the many tangles in her hair, Jayda blurted that she wished she had short hair so that it wouldn't hurt so bad when I brushed it. I didnt take her seriously the first time she mentioned it, but she asked again and again over the next couple of weeks, so I scheduled an appointment and we got it done! By the way, we went to Cookie Cutters. They did such a great job.

Tai gets a new bed!

Tai climbed out of his crib for the first time a few months ago. He did it every day for about a week, then the excitement of the new trick wore off and he stopped for a few weeks. I figured my patience in the matter paid off and he would be content to sleep in his crib for a little while longer (until I was ready to move him out). Well, it didn't last long. Soon, he was climbing in and out of his crib all the time. I finally decided to give in since we were going to have to move him out sometime withing the next few months to make way for the new baby. We took down Jayda's loft bed (which she hadnt been using since she moved to my old daybed in her own room downstairs--this was awhile ago) and used the frame which holds the mattress an inch or two off the ground--a nice safe height for a climbing toddler--and voila! Tai has a new bed complete with a new sheet set and a new Cars blanket which he totally loves!!

He rarely falls asleep in the bed, but I am not complaining since he usually plays himself to sleep within a half hour from when I put him down. I just have to remember to move him from the floor to the bed. This is a wonderful change from how Jayda was--she would cry and cry until I rocked her to sleep or was determined enough to let her cry herself to sleep (her record was 3 hours of crying). And at least he sleeps through the night--Jayda didnt until she was 3 years old.


Tai gave up his binkies! NOT!!

I just had to figure out a way to fit this picture into this post--isnt he funny? Instead of giving up the binkie, he now takes two at a time. Okay, not on a regular basis, but he sure thinks he is funny when he doubles it up...and so do we!

Museum Mania

So we took some time this summer to visit a dinosaur museum and a children's museum. The kids had fun--especially Jayda who is at a great age to really appreciate the cool stuff there. Tai just liked to ride the cars.

This is Jayda and Tai on the way home from the children's museum.

Aren't dinosaurs so cool! I think Lehi is trying to feed Tai to that hungry looking dinosaur.