London

Jayna and I went to London, Ontario this week to visit my sister and her family. Wow, life is so busy with 5 kids (Cassandra's 4 + Jayna) !! I feel like we were only there for a couple days, it went by way too fast! It's so fun for Jayna to be able to see her cousins, and they love her sooo much, it's really cute! Jesse is always trying to "play" with Jayna, and whenever he comes home from anything he asks where she is. If he knows she's napping it's just way too tempting for him to go and "check on her". One time when he woke her from a nap Cassandra told him to come tell me what he did and he started off with this: "Well, the first time I went in there she was just laying there..." I was laughing so hard, how could we be mad?!!

I love going to visit my sisters, we didn't even really do most of the things we planned to do, but it's just so nice to be able to hang out. We did manage to fit in a trip to Ikea, which was great, I forgot how much I love Ikea! Cassandra and I decided that life would be close to perfect if we could just be next door neighbours! (As long as they don't mind living in the North Pole) The only bad thing about the whole trip is that I forgot my camera!! I was so disappointed, but we did remember to snap a few pictures with Cassandra's, so as soon as she sends them to me I'll post them (hint, hint).

I'm gonna get you!

Jayna is such a silly girl right now. She loves to laugh, but it's not always that easy to get her to laugh. Sometimes she will be in a silly mood and and she will start doing funny little things and then laugh at herself. And if we imitate her, she thinks it's hilarious! She loves it when one of us hides behind something and she'll start looking for us and then we jump out and scare her. She laughs so hard and hides her face and snuggles with whoever is holding her (I think that's the best part). Unless nobody is holding her, then she'll dive into whoever's lap is closest, one time she almost jumped off the couch.

I am sooo funny!

I'm gonna get you!

Making a dive for it!

I think Jayna's absolute favourite game is to be chased. All we have to say is: "Jayna, I'm gonna get you!", and she screams and crawls away as fast as she can. Except once in a while she just stops and either lets us catch her, or starts crawling towards us. (I think she might like getting caught). Sometimes she actually seems really scared, but she still loves it!

I would be scared of Gibb too, look at that face!

Bath Time is Fun Again

Jayna is finally starting to like her bath again! She used to love her bath, but for the past month or so bath time has been so hard because all she wanted to do is stand up in the tub and when we wouldn't let her she would get really mad and so we would just try to finish as fast as we could. Now I think she is finally starting to understand that she just can't stand up in the tub and she'll actually sit back down without throwing a fit! What a relief, now Gibb and I will both want to give Jayna her bath instead of doing the dishes after dinner.

Jayna loves her rubber duckie, but maybe we should get some dirty dogs like Grandma has

I have to wash this?

Pink Blankie

Jayna loves her little pink blankie, it's silky on one side and so soft on the other side. We started giving it to her to sleep with when she was about 6 months old because she loved holding onto to things and would grab the blankets in her crib. Now I don't think she could sleep without it (we actually haven't tried though). Whenever I want her to fall asleep in the stroller or car I bring it with us and as soon as we give it to her she hugs it and starts sucking her thumb.

27

Birthdays used to be so much more exciting when I was young, yes that's right I think I'm old. I know I'm only 27, but that sounds and feels old for me. Ever since I turned 25, or actually make that 20, I feel like I'm old. But 27 isn't as depressing as 25, so I guess it is getting better, I don't know how that makes sense though. On my 25th birthday Gibb took me to Cedar Point, there's no way you can feel old while riding the craziest, funnest roller coasters ever!

But I still love my birthday! Tonight we took Jayna over to Julie and Jason's and we went out on a date. We went to the Mad Greek for dinner, this restaurant I've been wanting to try since we moved here. And then we went and saw the movie Across the Universe. It was a really fun night! Gibb got me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure. I'm going to use it right before we go to Dubai, I can't wait!

Little Music Lover

This past week-end while we were watching conference Jayna was mesmerized with the choir singing. She really seems to like music and loves singing and dancing. While we were watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing, Jayna started waving her arm like the choir director (Mom and Pat you would've bee so proud! I just realized that you're both the choir directors in your ward.) She was doing it all throughout conference. Then today we were driving in the car and listening to music and she started doing it again! It's so cute, I wish I had a picture to post. Now whenever we're listening to music Gibb and I pretend to lead, trying to get her to do it again.

Pigtails!

Pigtails are my absolute favourite hair-do on little girls and I'm always trying it out on Jayna to see if her hair is long enough yet. I think that we're really close this time. She looks so grown up with these pigtails in! I couldn't get a great picture because she was so distracted with this fun box, but you can still get the idea.

Mama, Hi!

Jayna has started saying so many more words right now, it's so cute! She can say: "mama", "dada", "hi", "bye", "yeah", and "woof, woof". We love it when she talks, but sometimes I wonder how much she actually understands and if she really knows what she's saying or if she's just imitating Gibb and I.
Then this morning I walked into Jayna's room to get her from her crib and she was standing in her usual position: Standing in the crib facing the door holding onto the crib slats, Gibb and I always think she looks like she's a prisoner in jail when she stands like that. Anyways I walked in and Jayna said "Mama! Hi!"!!!!
I can't explain how it made me feel, so excited and proud and amazed and wanting to cry all at the same time. And I said "Hi Jayna! Did you have a good sleep?". The same thing I always say when I go to get her from her crib. Id' say this is a pretty great start to our day.

Apple Picking

Today Gibb got out of clinic early, so we decided to go apple picking. We have been having the hottest fall weather, so it was almost 30C today! Gibb had never been apple picking before. In elementary school we used to go every year on a field trip, and I've also gone every year that we've been here in Cleveland. I love apples and I love going to pick apples because you can get all the good kinds that you can't usually get in the grocery store. I think I'm going to make a big pan of apple crisp with these apples!

Jayna loved the pumpkins!

She finally learned how to clap!

Jayna loves playing with leaves, I think it's because she likes the crunchy sound they make

Big Girl Car Seat

Now that Jayna is 1 and (almost) 20 lbs. it's time to put her in a forward facing car seat. We shopped around so much for this seat, I really hope she likes it. Gibb insisted that we get her the pink car seat, even though it is so not practical, because it was so cute! (I'm not kidding, his words, not mine!) I wasn't crazy about the pink, but it's so rare for Gibb to actually have such a strong opinion about this sort of thing I couldn't say no. I think Jayna has Gibb wrapped around her finger, just a little bit...

Today was the first day she rode in her car seat, and I think she would have liked it except that the sun was in her eyes the whole way.