My "NEW" Hobby

I have been wanting to learn to sew for a very long time and being around so many people that are making cute things for their little girls has made me want to even more!

So a friend of mine who loves to sew and is good at it has offered to help me learn. We have many things planned for me to make like an apron for Makayla, Pajamas for all of us, a skirt for Makayla, maybe a dress for her, and who knows what else. I will keep making stuff as long as she is willing to teach me!

We started out with me making an apron for Makayla. They have one at the gym child watch that Makayla goes to and she loves to wear it.

It turned out so cute if I don't say so myself!

And yes I did most of it. Rychelle had to show me what to do and help me a little bit, but I did do most of it and I think it is pretty cute. Makayla loves it and that makes me so happy!

We made it so that it would be reversible. Rychelle's idea of course!

I love the patterns so much!

Here is Makayla modeling it for the camera. It goes so well with her kitchen she got for Christmas.

Makayla's "New" Favorite Things

This is just a quick update of Makayla, since we all know that this blog is all about her anyway!

We recently purchased a Wii and Makayla is a pro at it! Ok not really after all she isn't even 2 yet, but she loves to play with us and when she does something right she can be heard saying,

"I did it!"

Here she is showing off her mad bowling skills!

Another "new" thing that Makayla is starting to do is take off her clothes at random times. It hasn't happened in public yet, but when we are at home sometimes she will come in and not have her pants on. The other day this what she did.....

Taking off the shirt isn't as easy I guess.

One of my favorite "new" things that Makayla likes to do is, "help mommy". Whenever I need to make dinner Makayla is right there wanting to help. When it is time to eat she tells daddy all the things that she helped me do to get ready for dinner. Boy she's a smart one!

Making dinner!

(Cutting up cantaloupe)

I just had to add this one, she is just so cute!

Friends, New Year's, & Christmas #2

This is the last post about our holiday adventures in Utah, I promise!!!

While in Utah we got to see some of our friends. I didn't take pictures when we hung out with them so sorry I don't have any to post, but I did take a picture of Makayla hanging out with her friends! Makayla loves these two. She can often be found talking to them as if they are right there with her. They are some cute kids and we love their parents! They are great friends to us as well!

Makayla, Kyson, & Taylee

Kyson was being crazy and wouldn't stop being silly. He got the girls to copy him and raise their arms in the air. We already miss you guys!

Also while still in Utah we rang in 2010! We had a lot of fun eating food (lots of food), playing games, and playing the Wii.

I just thought these pictures were funny! She was trying so hard to get that cheese to come out. When she couldn't get any this is the face we got as well as "HELP ME!"

(We are working on the please in that sentence!)

We didn't want to keep Makayla up until 12 AM So we celebrated the new year early for her. Great-Grandma Marchant brought down a hat and noise maker for Makayla to wear. We put them on her and told her it was the new year! We also shot off little poppers for her, she thought they were a little loud.

Trying to figure this thing out!

Happy New Year!!!

What is with this face lately!

(see previous posts)

Side note: When 12:00 AM hit Makayla was wide awake! I swear she knew it was time and she didn't want to miss out. So what did we do? We let her join us for a little celebrating.

We left New Year's day to go back home and didn't arrive until the next morning technically. We were kind of excited to get back home so that we could celebrate Christmas again and give Makayla her other presents. It was awesome! It was just like Chirstmas morning all over again.

She was a little upset that there were wrapped presents in front of her new Kitchen!!

But she still had fun opening them!

Check out the cradle Caleb made for her! He made the pattern for it, cut it out, and stained it! I think it looks pretty darn good! She is one lucky girl.

Thus concludes the recap of our holiday season. Now back to the old grind of everyday life in the freezing cold!!!

Fun In The Snow!

We had a good snow storm while we were in Utah, not the rock hard ice I mean snow, they get in Iowa! With all the snow we decided to let Makayla play in it and build her first snowman with daddy.

Getting all bundled up to go outside and play!

After playing around for awhile daddy decided to get serious and build the snowman. Makayla helped at first, but it was taking too long, the snow was too soft. She told me she was cold and I took her inside to get some hot chocolate while Caleb finished the snowman. He had to pack the entire thing. He couldn't just roll it into balls and place them one on top of the other, so he was out there for quite sometime, but it turned out fabulous!!

Helping daddy!

When Caleb finished we all came back outside to put the face on.

Makayla with the finished product!

She loved it so much she even wanted to give it a kiss!

One happy family!

Christmas 2009

Christmas was great this year! We had a blast in Utah celebrating with family. Makayla loved seeing her Grandma and Grandpa. They spoiled her with lots of love. One thing that Grandma loved to do was take a nap with Makayla. She would brag about how she could get her to sleep, since I have such a hard time getting her to go to sleep for her naps.

Here they are taking a nap. Secretly I think my mom enjoyed them because it was an excuse for her to get to take a nap and no one could give her a hard time.

We also got to see Caleb's brother, his wife, and their little girl. Makayla loves her cousin Maddi! It was great to see you guys!

Christmas dress from Grandma!

Isn't she beautiful!

On Christmas Eve we decided to make a gingerbread house! It was a lot of fun! Makayla had so much fun eating the candy as we were making it. When it was finished we put it on the piano and every time we couldn't find Makayla all we had to do was go to the piano and there she was taking candy off the house!

Such a cheese ball!!!

While we were making the house Caleb thought he saw something run from the chair to the couch, but didn't tell anyone anything, and then a little bit later my dad jump out of the chair he was in and said he saw a mouse run behind the entertainment center. I was freaked out! They couldn't get it so we went on with our Christmas Eve festivities. When we were reading the story of Christ's birth we were interrupted again with my brother seeing the mouse and then all the men trying to catch it and get rid of it. In the end Caleb caught the mouse and released it far away from the house. It was a pretty funny night and I will never forget it! If you ask Makayla about the mouse she will tell you all about it!

Christmas morning was so much fun this year since Makayla was at an age where she understood how to open and enjoy her presents. We left all of her presents at home, because taking them on the plane back and forth wasn't a fun idea to us! She got to have two Christmas' one on the real day and one when we got home. Pictures of that to follow later. Don't worry she still had plenty to open on Christmas with all that Grandma and Grandpa gave her.

Makayla showing off her cute Christmas P.J.'s.

She loves Santa Clause and was so excited to get these.

Play blocks?

You could hear her asking this all the time after she got these.

She is such a good helper. After she was done opening her presents she was there to help everyone else open theirs!

Makayla and her Mommy on Christmas Day!

We had a wonderful Christmas and we are so grateful for the true meaning of it all! We love the Savior and are so grateful for his birth and the opportunity to celebrate it! We are also so grateful we were able to share it with the ones we love! We hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!

Temple Square 2009

So, I am going to be playing catch up from our trip to Utah for Christmas. I have a lot to write about and so I will be making a few entries to cover them, so that I don't have one long post.

One of the first things we did when we got to Utah was go to Temple Square to see the lights. It is funny how when you live in Utah Temple Square can seem like no big deal, but once you leave it is something you miss. (maybe that is just me) Anyway it was a blast and even more fun because Makayla was with us and she loved them!

We went with my family and had a great time!

It was pretty cold the night we went, so we had to bundle Makayla up. Now doesn't she look so warm and cozy!

How long do you think she stayed in the stroller.......?

Not very long!

Makayla and Daddy!

Uncle Cory, Makayla, & Uncle Eric!

They love her even if she isn't too fond of them all the time!

Grandma, Makayla, & Grandpa!

These two adore Makayla and she sure loves them!

Our Little Family!

The hat she is wearing was mine when I was a little girl. I thought it was so cool that it was in good enough shape for her to wear this year!

The whole gang!

We had so much fun! It was great to be all together!

Stay tuned for more of our trip to Utah and Christmas!