Christmas time

Here we are at my most favorite time of year. I love everything about Christmas. The music, the lights, family and family traditions, presents, but most of all, the reminder about who gave the greatest gift of all--Christ, our Savior. Jayda helped me put up the Christmas tree this year. She hung most of the ornaments by herself--if you can't tell by how they are mostly bunched up right at her level. We went to the Festival of Trees like we do every year with my family. Below are pictures of some of the amazing trees that were on display this year. Jayda loved the Superman tree.

Tai really likes our Christmas tree, too. I pretty much wired the ornaments to the branches when I put them on, so Tai couldnt pull them off, but he keeps pulling the beaded garland off, and I keep having to fix it. Oh well.

Kid Videos

Tai will tell me "no-no" if he doesnt want something.

Here is Tai (and Jayda) clapping. Gee, my kids are so talented.

Jayda, a natural entertainer, is always excited by the attention Tai--who is her #1 fan--gives her.

Getting around

Tai has accomplished a few milestones since I last posted. So enjoy these fun pictures of him getting around while I write about the fun things he has been doing lately.

Tai took his first step 2 weeks ago (Nov. 9 to be exact). He stands by himself often and does lots of cruising, but I was excited to see him take his first step that day (Lehi happened to look away at that particular moment, so he missed it). Since then, he has been taking steps several times a day, but we have yet to see two steps in a row.

Tai clapped for the first time ever--right after the big BYU-UTAH game. Everyone around him was acting all bummed, and there was Tai clapping for the first time with a big grin on his face. Hmmm...sorry, Lehi, but your son might be a Utah fan at heart.

I caught Tai climbing the stairs a few weeks ago. I was doing laundry and I set him down to play in the kids playroom. My back was turned for only a couple of minutes. I went to check on him because he was being suspiciously quiet, and much to my surprise (okay, I wasn't that surprised--the kid is quick and strong) he was nearly to the top of the stairs. I quickly grabbed him, ran for the camera, put him back on the stairs, then snapped a couple of pictures. Now he is a pro at climbing stairs, too bad he has not yet figured out how to go down efficiently.


Tai has always been pretty good at sleeping through the night (last night he slept 10 hours straight--Thank You!), but every now and then he has been known to wake up in the middle of the night ready to play like it was the middle of the day. This particular picture was taken at 3am. Tai is reaching into the toy bin next to his crib. Crazy boy!

Halloween fun

On Halloween night as we were getting ready to go Trick-or-Treating, we paused to pose for a few pictures. Jayda was Super Girl, Tai was Batman, I was dressed to go to a slumber party, and Lehi--hmmm, I am not sure what he is here, but he was a biciclist when he dressed up for work.

Here are Jayda and Tai with my cousins--we all went trick-or-treating together.

Trev and Tai were both Batman--Tai did not want to wear his Bat ears/mask, he tried to pull it off the second I put it on him. I figured it wasn't worth a battle, so we left it home.
Jayda and her friends got all decked out for their Halloween party at school.

Grandma Suzy threw a Halloween Party and Jayda and Hannah got to take a few shots at the Pinata before Jeremy finally whacked it to pieces.

Everyone also spent some time spraying silly string on each other--good family fun!

Amanda (orange shirt) got the worst of it.

Tai went cruising around Grandma Suzy's house with his cape flying behind.







To get into the Halloween spirit, we visited the Witches at Gardner village:

The hula-hooping witch was Jayda's favorite.

Here is the bicicling witch ("where is her broom?")

Don't I have a cute family?

It is never too early to start teaching your son to cook :)

Jayda and Tai got into the dress-up box.

Here comes Firefighter Tai!

Tai will crawl anywhere he can fit or reach...

Mischief is his middle name. He seems to know what things he shouldn't get into and he always goes straight for those things. I mean, what hasn't he put in his mouth yet? And how is it that in a room full of toys I find acceptable for him to play with, he is still able to find that dumb polly pocket shoe that Jayda misplaced (can I say "choking hazard!"?) He likes to push the test button on our Carbon Monoxide detector--I guess it makes a cool noise (very loud). His favorite games right now are Peek-a-boo, and "Fetch!"--he throws his pacifier, cookie, toy, or whatever he has in his hand at the moment to the floor for Mom or Dad to fetch, when he gets it back he pretends to be interested in it long enough for me to move away then he chucks it to the ground again. And for some reason I keep picking the objects up and giving them back to him. Another favorite activity is head-bonking. He will bonk his head (on purpose, mind you) on almost everything. The wall at the head of our bed, the bars of his crib, the back of his high chair, on toys, the floor, the closet doors, and even on other heads (he has even bonked my nose a few times--I swear I saw stars a couple times) But it is all of these silly little quirks and personality traits that endear Tai to our hearts. I mean, who wouldnt love that adventurous grin?

So we had computer and internet issues over the summer which made it hard to keep up with the blog. But now (a new computer later) we are back in business and I have a whole summer's worth of pictures to share! Well, I guess I will give you guys a summary rather than the whole thing. Enjoy!





One of the big highlights of the summer was going to the zoo. Shanell and Jordan (my brother's wife and son) were in town so we went to the zoo with them and Suzy and Jeremy. Tai had fun on the carousel, but was hungry and mad by the time we got to ride the train. We all had a ton of fun!















We went to our ward picnic this summer. The kids played games and performed some patriotic songs. Jayda played with water balloons. And Lehi participated in a pie-eating contest.

The competition was fierce, but Lehi did win the pie-eating contest (go figure).

We have made it a tradition to go to the Days of '47 Parade every year. Despite the hassle (getting up early to get a spot, packing up the car for 2 kids now, fighting the rays of the hot sun, etc.), it brings out the kid in me, and my kids will have memories that last forever.

In celebration of a special visitor from Samoa: Lehi's cousin, who happens to be Miss Samoa this year, came to Salt Lake City from Samoa for the final Miss Samoa pagent at Flag Days (the Samoan independence day celebration here in Utah). There was a party held for all the contestants the week before the pagent and Jayda got all dressed up for the celebration. There was music and dancing and, of course, lots of food. Jayda had a blast!

My boss took our staff boating at Jordanelle. We had a blast. It was nice that Lehi was invited to come along, too. We got to ride the tube and also ride some wave runners. Super fun!

Tai went on his first camping trip this year. We went to Bear Lake. I took some really cute pictures of the kids swimming in the lake (Tai was in a kid pool on the beach), but they are in my mom's camera and I will have to get them from her soon. These were taken at the campsite and inside our tent.

We try to take a trip to Lagoon at least once a year. This year we went with my Dad and Suzy and Jeremy. Tai got to ride the train and the stroller. Jayda was big enough to ride more rides this year. She was very excited. Yes, that is me riding on the kiddie swings with Jayda on the bottom. Hmm.. maybe I will leave that ride just for the kiddies next time--my feet were dragging.