"It's just the stage she's in"

says my mom.

Lately Alayna has been constantly getting hurt.

Which results in wounds such as this: Within the last few days, she:

-got a bloody nose from falling off a camping chair
-smashed her fingers in the door at grandma's house
-fell down all of the stairs at grandma's house (that one was a bit scary for mom)
-smashed her fingers in the drawer
-fell out of the wagon

those are just a few of many.

While she does seem to be getting hurt all of the time, I am impressed at how little she cries. She is a bit dramatic at first, but then once she feels you know she didn't like what happened, it's on to the next thing.

We have a fearless toddler on our hands. I think I am the one that is constantly getting scared for her.

Now that the nicer weather is finally here, we have been to the playground several times and Alayna just climbs up everything with the big kids. She acts like she owns the place. She goes down the slides by herself and doesn't care if I am not around. Although I am always nearby since she thinks the tallest slides are the best.

She definitely keeps me on my toes.

I have a feeling this stage that she is in might be a long one...

19 months old

My, oh my, this little girl is growing up fast.

She still has a shoe fetish and she still LOVES buckles.

This shoe, I believe has a buckle on it which is why she is concentrating so hard.

Every buckle in our house is buckled and unbuckled at least million times a day.

Since cousin Connor's car seat has a buckle on it, she has to get in and try it out. The funny thing is, Connor is only a pound or two lighter than her so the straps fit perfectly on Alayna. Um, did I mention he is only 5 months old. He is a solid little guy.

Alayna will give kisses when asked. Instead of puckering her lips, she just sticks out her bottom lip like so.

And she never forgets to kiss the baby. They don't even have to ask. Our cousins Kendree and Connor get their fair share of kisses as well.

Anything that is meant for the babies is cool to Alayna. The car seat that was mentioned earlier as well as this bath tub that was meant for cousin Connor, but Alayna insisted on having her bath in it as well.

Along with her growing vocabulary (she pretty much will copy most words that you say), she is also loving singing songs. I think that might be her favorite part of nursery. At least, we can definitely tell that she is catching on to the songs that they sing there.

Here she is doing the actions to a couple of her new favorites.

Head, Shoulders

Knees:

and Toes:

Eyes (I don't know why this pic is sideways, but we'll just go with it.) :

ears, mouth and

Nose:

And, Three little monkeys swinging in a tree.

There is a part where they tease the crocodile and say

You can't catch me!

Here she is teasing the crocodile....or showing off her muscles. Whichever.

And this is the part where the Alligator snaps his mouth and eats one of the monkeys.

This month has been filled with Alayna learning tons of new things. She is lots of fun, but she definitely keeps me on my toes! We love you, Layna!

And then I make good on my promise....

...to show some pictures of Sarah at prom, that is.


First there was the preparation. We spent a few hours in the bathroom beautifying. Most of that time was spent curling Sarah's hair.

Boy does that girl have TONS of hair. And it is thick. And beautiful.

Adam couldn't stand being left out so he came to add some comical relief. But it's not like we needed much help in that department.

Breaking the towel rack, and burning Sarah's hair were some of the things that transpired during the hours of beautifying. (Just so you know, I did the first thing, KaLee did the second.)

And so KaLee doesn't ring my neck, it was only two strands of hair that came in contact with the lighter. Yes. I said lighter*.


Seriously Adam, are you sure we are related? I swear I seem normal..... (just kidding, Ad.)

Notice the hair clip on my jacket and hair spray under my arm. I meant business. I was in charge of the hairspray. No Wyoming wind was going to ruin my creation...I mean our creation. Sorry, Ka.

The finished product, minus the dress. Get a look at those eyelashes. Seriously, Sarah has the longest eyelashes known to woman. They are so long that she doesn't need mascara, we just pulled it out for this special occasion.

Side view.

The back. (It is my favorite.)

The ensemble. Isn't she stunning? LOVE it!

*In case you were wondering. The lighter was supposed to be used on the ribbon ends to stop them from fraying. But somebody got a little carried away with the hairspray and made it impossible to have anything flammable within inches of Sarah.

Apparently...

All you need is a hat.

And then, life is complete.

*If you didn't already guess, Dan couldn't catch her fast enough when changing her diaper.*

A glance

The past couple of weeks have felt super busy. (What's new.) I'm sure you all are feeling the same way. And that "busy-ness" has kept me away from the computer. So here's a glance at some of the happenings (in bullet points, no less).

• Dan reached his half way mark in school. Can you believe it? I sure can't. Time has flown by. And I am happy to report that Dan is LOVING Wyotech.
• While Dan has been doing the school thing, Alayna and I have been doing the Babysitting thing, among other things. But babysitting really does take up a lot of my week. I have had a little break for a few days, and I have to admit, I am LOVING spending one-on-one time all day long with my Layna. She is the best.
• When Alayna is down for a nap, after I have straightened the house, checked my email, and exercised, I have been crocheting. This new found hobby of mine really is quite addicting. I have been busy making baby hats and shoes. I promise to show off the fruits of my labor when I am done.
• On some of the mornings that I don't babysit, I have had a chance to help in my friend/former co-worker, Kathy's, kindergarten class. Oh, how I have missed teaching Kindergarten! But it has been wonderful to go and visit and re-live my Kindergarten teaching days. If there were two of me, you can bet that one of me would be teaching Kindergarten at Beitel and the other me would be staying at home with my little Layna.
• Prom was this last weekend in Laramie, and I was asked to be my little sister, Sarah's, hair dresser and makeup person. KaLee was my "assistant hair person" as she put it and also in charge of the manicure and pedicure. It was a blast. And I have to say, she looked stunning! Her hair was pretty darn awesome, if I do say so myself. In fact, I have decided that I will have to post pictures later so you can see the awesome-ness for yourself.
• One of the biggest changes recently is Dan was just made the 2nd counselor in the bishopric in our ward. I am now the single mother that has to fight to keep her child from running up to the stand to sit with her Daddy. You probably already know (because I have said it a million times), but Alayna is a BIG daddy's girl. I mean she love, love, loves her daddy. It was so sad to see her stand on my lap on Sunday and hold her arms out to Dan, saying in a very sad voice, "Dada. Dada." I have a feeling we will be out in the hall several times during Sacrament meeting for this first little while.
• I have a new (as of a few months ago) calling in our ward as the visiting teaching coordinator. I had no idea how much time goes into this calling. Especially in a transient ward like ours. This last week I made changes on visiting teaching routes since so many people were moving due to graduation. When all was said and done, we had to hand out 34 new visiting teaching routes.
• Mother's Day was fantastic! They just get better and better.

There is an unwritten rule...

That cousins who are close in age (and little) have to take at least one bath together.

The other night we watched cousin Easton. It was Alayna's bath night, so we thought, what the heck, why not see what happens when they both bathe together.

Can you tell she liked it?

This is the expression that was on Alayna's face 95 % of the time.

They had a blast. And since then, every single time Easton has come to our house, he has requested to take a bath with Alayna.

A box is all it takes

to keep the kids contained while you get a few things done.

For some reason this box kept Easton and Alayna entertained for quite awhile.

They loved climbing in and out as well as watching a movie while sitting in it.

It's the simple things.