9 Months Old

Dear Zaya,

How did we get here?  And so fast?  My sweet little baby has quickly turned into a growing toddler with a wonderful personality all her own.  Before I had you, I worried that I would not feel as connected to you because I would have two other active children to attend to.  Yet, the moment I saw your face, the second I looked into your eyes, I knew you were mine and I fell absolutely, completely in love.

Zaya, your disposition is cheerful and calm.  You love your big brother and sister and you finally enjoy playing with them.  Sometimes, I will find you and Hurley in her room together.  You are usually tearing apart everything, but I am overjoyed at the fact that you are having fun together.

You represent some firsts for our family.  You are the first child to still love her pacifier at this age (I'll admit, I'm starting to dislike this a lot too) and you are the first child to prefer Mom over everyone else (from day 1).  You are also the first of our children calm enough to bring to meetings, movies, and other events!  Lastly, you are the first of our children to not be COMPLETELY sleep-trained at 9 months (your siblings were trained by 4 months . . . what can I say, I am little bit lazy and a bit of a softy this time around).

You love to eat!  Last month you weighed just 15 pounds.  Though you are tiny, you have lots of healthy meat on your bones.  You have 6 teeth now and you prefer to eat table food with the rest of us.  You love bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, cheese, bread, and absolutely ANYTHING that you can get your hands on!  We have to be careful with you on the move . . . anything within your reach goes into your mouth.

You love to play peekaboo.  Sometimes when you are sitting in your carseat, next to Brooklen, you will lift your blanket up over your face and try to start a game of peekaboo all by yourself.  You also love sticking you pacifier in someone else's mouth and snatching it back (not the most sanitary game . . . but definitely fun).  You LOVE to laugh and you are also quite fond of swinging at the park.

You have the silliest hair.  It is still fairly dark brown and it is ALWAYS in your eyes.  I try to clip it back, but it always ends up right back in your eyes.  You don't seem to mind, and you love that I am always blowing it out of your face!

Zaya, I love you more each day (if that is even POSSIBLE).  I can't wait to be with you every step of the way as you grow into a beautiful woman!

Love,

Mom

Hurley

I just love this little girl!  She has such a funny personality and I simply can't get enough of her right now.

A little peek of Zay (with her tiny baby doll) too . . .

Sledding

We've had a pretty mild winter, which means that when it has snowed, we've actually kind of enjoyed it.

The Nativity

This was the last year that we were able to spend Christmas with our dear friends in Canton.  We met together at the Merx's house for a night of singing, the nativity, and yummy treats!  Brooklen got to be Joseph this year (his friend, Cali, was Mary) and Hurley was a shepherd.  What a wonderful evening with wonderful friends!

My Girls

I just love theses cuties.  Zaya looks more like Hurley every day!]

Friends

I am finally getting around to posting these because our friends, the Merx family, leave today for a 3-year job assignment in England.  When they moved to Canton, Owen and Brooklen were just babies.  For the first little while, Brooklen scared Owen half to death.  He loved to hug and wrestle with Owen and Owen just wasn't "feelin' it!"  As these boys grew, however, they became the very best of friends.  My head actually hurts trying to think about all of the things that they did together because they spent so much time playing together.  Then, a wonderful thing happened.  They both got little sisters!  And if you thought Brooklen and Owen were buddies, you should have seen Hurley and Ellika!  They could laugh and giggle together forever!  When we moved to Midland, Angie made a photo book for us.  I can't believe all of the memories we made together.

Since I don't have hours, I'm going to try to write down a few things that I want to remember:

1.  Brooklen's favorite team is MICHIGAN!  Why?  Because it is Owen's favorite team (why?  because it is RACHIE's favorite team).  Brooklen is the cutest little thing.  He wants to be just like Owen.  His favorite color used to be green, but now, it is blue and yellow (and green) because of Owen.  If Owen does something or has something, Brooklen just HAS to have it too!

2.  Hurley, on the other hand, is completely unaffected by peer pressure.  She loves her friends, but she prefers to be the ringleader.

3.  Hurley and LE used to get in trouble in nursery and have to be separated because they were disruptive (at 2!!!)

4. B and Owen played soccer and t-ball together.  What a hoot!  They would chase each other around on the field looking for the biggest leaves!

6.  Brooklen and Owen made up a game, This Is Our Land.  I'll be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with this game.  They basically take everything they can find and put it in one, big, messy pile!  Unfortunately, putting everything away afterwards wasn't part of the game.  I had to nag to get that implemented!

While we were in Canton we made soooo many wonderful friends.  Brooklen and Hurley talk about Cali, Isaac, Kevin, Ali, etc. all the time.  About a year ago, the Anderson's moved into our ward.  Brody is a bit older than B and Afton is Hurley's age.  Ta-Da . . . another wonderful addition to our family!  Our kids just loved each other!

Before we left, I had the Owen, Ellie, Brody, and Afton over for a celebration.  We had kind of a hodgepodge of activities to celebrate.  We ate jello worms (just because) and then we made a Christmas craft (I know, a weird combination!).  I just love these simple photos of these kids together.  I hope that these relationships will exist forever.

Hawaii (Part 3)

This is the view inside the house.  The entire back of it opened up!  And the best part, Rob, the kids, and I got our own 2 bedroom MIL apartment (there ARE some advantages to having the most kids)!

B was playing a little stick baseball.

And Hurley did a little, um, yoga?

This series is my favorite.  B organized all of the stuff that he collected on walks.  I am going to have to use these prints somewhere in our new house.  I just love all of the colors and textures!

Aunt Kenzie is a fun one, that's for sure!  My kids always say that she's the craziest person they know.

Ethan helped Brooklen climb on top of the hot tub cover in our backyard.