Oh, the Dancing

So I'm pretty sure Jayna gets her dancing ability and crazy energy from her father. This is an earlier video of her dancing... She now enjoys getting up on her hands and feet, looking between her legs, and shaking her head like Stevie Wonder. Haha!

Our Favorite Activity

I love that daddy and Jayna have such a great time together. My favorite part is that she can't quite turn around as fast as she wants to... It's like those dreams where you're being chased and suddenly you lose all traction and can't run anywhere.

My Baby is 1!!!

I can't help but look back on my life when little milestones occur. I remember not too long ago, being single with worries being 80% about work and the other 20% about losing weight. I did everything on my own timeline; exercised when I wanted, worked when I wanted, went to the bathroom and showered when I wanted, etc. However, I also remember feeling more lonely than I thought imaginable. Even though I was surrounded by incredible friends and family, I remember feeling a gap in my heart that I could only pray would be filled at some point in my life.

Luckily, Scott came along and that void was filled... or so I thought. The worry, fear, excitement, and anticipation that soon followed with an unexpected pregnancy, all turned to an overwhelming feeling of love when I held my baby in my arms for the first time. I'm learning that the love for my husband and baby not only fills that void, but spills over. I fall more and more in love every day that I'm a mom. Emotion overtakes me when I think of how blessed I am to have such an incredible husband and sweet baby.

Though my life has turned upside-down and inside-out since I've been married, the blessing of being a mother and wife outweighs all the trials and tribulations that we've been faced with. Now my time is never my own anymore. Every time I turn my head, my curious child has crawled up onto something and fallen off, or she has found the one piece of who-knows-what that I missed sweeping, or she is hungry, tired, or just wants to play with her momma. Though it's exhausting at times, I'm reminded every time I see her sweet smile or get that one little tender look, that turning my life upside-down is exactly what I was meant to do.

I cannot believe that my baby is 1 year old today. Time has flown by so fast and it's amazing to see her cute, fun, curious, teasing personality coming through.

One year ago (minus 2 weeks)

Today... No more cuddling, just curiosity

Little Miss Active

Happy birthday, sweet little monkey! Momma loves you!

Crazy July

I realize it's been over a month since I posted, but in all fairness, it has been a crazy month! Scott and I went to Twin Falls from July 3rd-8th. When we got home we found our floors SWIMMING with ants. I can honestly say I've never seen that many ants in my life. It's amazing too, because we keep a clean house. They found all open boxes of cereal, crackers, etc. We had to throw everything out... not a fun thing when you're going on your second month of unemployment. So, we turned around and left to Ma Baker's house while our ant poison went to work. When we got home that Tuesday, most of them were gone, but we knew the whole colony wasn't dead. After dealing with ants for 4 years (never this bad), we decided it was time to call in the professionals. We got a great deal and we've not seen a single ant since they sprayed... Super happy with them!

Then, three days later, we left on our anniversary trip to Billingsly Creek in Hagerman. It was so nice! You would think that we wouldn't need a vacation since we're unemployed, but it was much needed! Mom came and stayed with Jayna and we had our own private hot tub next to the creek, so we were able to relax like never before. We weren't worried about Jayna, or getting the basement done, or finances... It was so nice! I did have a bit of a nervous break-down after we got home because reality hit so hard, but I'm better now. It's so hard to have a husband who is so willing to work his butt off for anyone and who is brilliant, but doesn't even get the chance to show that to anyone. The job market is so hard to get into right now! Then we see all these people around us getting jobs just weeks after they've lost theirs and it wears us down. We're trying to keep a positive attitude though. Our very thoughtful parents have offered to help us with cost to get our basement done until we get back on our feet, because now Scott actually has the time to work on it. Luckily, we've not had to take them up on their offer yet because at the beginning of the year, work picked up for both of us and a still small voice told me we should save as much money as possible. We've lived like paupers for a long time now, but I now know why we needed to save the money. I'm so grateful for the spirit and the power of prayer!

On our anniversary trip

Jayna just keeps growing and growing! At her 10 month appointment, she was 17 lb 8 oz and was 27 inches long. She's now 15% for weight, 30% for height, and 55% for head circumference and she's grown a ton since then! Over the 4th of July, she finally learned to crawl. I think it was my parents' dog that did the trick... She loved him and always wanted to be around him. She constantly chased him around! She's now into anything and everything and I even caught her on the stairs the other day. Yes, we've put gaits up now :). Jayna loved spending time with her cousins and got spoiled rotten for a few weeks! Here are some cute pics from our trip to Twin:

 

 In her cute outfit from Grandma Baker

with Grandma Cox

Sydnee, Sage, and Jayna

Grandma Cox whispering sweet nothings in her ear

Haha! This one makes me laugh so hard!

Sage was such a big help on this trip and Jayna adored her!

Since Jayna's been crawling we find her in this position when she sleeps:

With bed-head like this (semi hard to see, but awesome):

Could be because I like to do this to her in the bath:

Jayna is especially loving her extra time with daddy. I love that he loves being with her and doing things with her!

They're watching the Swedish Chef... She loves him and keeps beat on the table

Got these pictures on Sunday (11 months old)... Love them all!

Father's Day Photo Frenzie

I know I've said it before, but I must say it again... I could not have picked a better man to be my husband and the father to my children! This is Scott's first Father's Day as a father and I cannot express enough what an incredible father he is to Jayna. She absolutely adores him! She watches his every move when he's in the room, she giggles every time he laughs, she laughs at everything he does... and she loves to look at him and say "dadadada"... Yeah, she pretty much already has him wrapped around her little, tiny finger.

As his wife, I'm incredibly grateful for the countless diapers he has changed, the mornings he wakes up with her so I can sleep in, the time he spends with her throughout the day, and the willingness to drop anything to help her out. He's so great about putting his family first and I'm grateful everyday that I was lucky enough to marry him. Love you, babe!

Here are some of the many pictures I absolutely love of him and Jayna:

Last, but not least, I must also say how grateful I am for my own dad. He has always been such an example to me of righteousness, charity, and compassion towards his fellow man. My dad always goes out of his way to help people and gives countless hours and hard work to any calling he is given. I love to see him with Jayna (even though he's usually sleeping). Haha! (Yeah, that little white ball is Jayna.)

Pics galore!

So, we are going through changes in just about every aspect. Last month I found out I'm losing about 10 students for the summer, which freaked me out a little. I've signed on 3 new students and have 4 more that have shown interest, but I'm praying I can fill those 10 spots! Not only were we hit there, but Scott lost his job last week. While it should freak us out, we have both been very calm about it... It has truly been a blessing for him to be out of this job! While we are diligently praying that he can find a new one quickly, we are enjoying our time together and getting a lot of things done. We've redone our front yard, we're making plans for our house (though we can't do anything until we find another job), and we're walking often :).

Here are some pics of the beginnings of our front yard:

In between the driveways used to be just a weed patch. We dug it all up, planted bushes and put bark down. It made such a huge difference!

 This used to also be a weed patch... not anymore :).

As you can see on the right side, there's a dirt patch in our grass... There are actually 2. They used to have a whole bunch of random things planted in them with rock CEMENTED in around them. I swear the guy who lived here before glued EVERYTHING! In fact, we call him Elmer. We've planted grass in these patches and it's coming up nicely.

Just another view.

On another note, Jayna is growing right before our eyes! When she woke up Sunday morning, we both turned to each other and said, "Did she just double in size?!" No joke! Just last week I could almost fit my fingers around her thighs and on Sunday I only made it about 2/3 of the way around... Incredible! Her hair is coming in like crazy and she now has 4 teeth. She's got a ton of energy and wants to be mobile, but still hasn't figured that one out... Whew! She giggles ALL the time! We love it. She's such an extrovert and goes crazy anytime she's around kids or other babies. All I have to say is that at some point I'll have to get a nicer camera because when she's happy and awake, I can't get her to stay still long enough to get a quality picture... Bluriness everywhere!

Notice her legs aren't touching the ground... She falls asleep like this all the time! It's hilarious... Talk about abs of steel!

Love these cheeks!

Loves her books!

Right after waking up... Absolutely LOVE her!!!

This is the day I swear she doubled in size!

Check out her legs in this one!

She now fits into her Easter dress from Grandma Cox (this is when we had a hard time getting a still picture)

 ...So I had to hold her

So, she can now move around in her walker and she always ends up turning away from us, but still has to see what we're up to... This is going to teach her to walk all twisted up!