Mr. and Mrs. Claus

All I have to say about this is...MERRY CHRISTMAS!! hehehe

Dear Binki

Dear Binki,

You've made my life so happy! You calmed me down when I got hurt, you've made me calm in the car, you've soothed my achy teeth when I was teething, you helped me sleep peacefully, but most of all you stopped my cranky cries which therefore made my mommy and daddy happy! I'm becoming a big girl now and my parents are making me give you up even though I'm not so sure about it. Thank you for making my life a bit easier. I will miss you dearly!

here are some precious moments of Makayla and her dear friend "binki".

and here is the last picture we will ever have of her with the paci. Its been quite the life saver in our home and we will all miss them. (We've got plenty of reasons to give it up right now though)

Random things...

Just wanted to share some random pictures. This little girl cracks me up and is growing up too fast. I sure love her The picture on the left is so sweet. Makayla fell asleep on her bear. Look at that sweet face, I could just eat her up!
I LOVE Christmas!! Here are some glittery joys I get to see everynight around my house!

SNOW AND CHRISTMAS LIGHTS....what more needs to be said

and now for the video....

Everytime I pull out the camera she say's "cheese" and this time instead of taking a picture I made a video. She is soo funny and was making the funniest cheese face. Oh I love this goofy girl

Taylor Swift-Never Grow Up (Lyrics on Screen)

This song touched my heart! Its so surreal how my baby is growing up and I just want her stay little, sweet and innocent!

Trick or Treat

Our neighborhood had a BBQ party on Halloween day that has kind of become a tradition with our neighborhood (this bbq was a different party than the ward party) . After the BBQ we took Makayla trick or treating

This was Makayla's first year trick or treating and at first she was very hesitant. She would not let me put her down and she would cry every time we went to a house weather it was scary or not, until she realized people were giving her candy. 10 min after we started she started walking up to the houses holding her little candy bag (she would not let us hold it) and go up to the people with the candy and try to take the candy out of their bowls. It was pretty funny!

We had such a great Halloween hope you all did too!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!!

We have had so much fun this Halloween season! The day before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch and Makayla Loved it!! We also had our ward Halloween party and it was beyond amazing. Our ward invited all our neighbors for it to be a missionary experience and there was a haunted house, 3 bounce houses, a rock climbing wall, pony rides, bull rides and lots of yummy food! It was like a mini carnival and was so much fun. We are so lucky to be in such a great ward and have made so many wonderful friends. at the pumpkin patch Makayla went through the corn maze and loved running around, she took off and rob was hiding and she was trying to find him, it was super cute

there were fun animals and pedal bikes and other fun games and activities. Definitely a Halloween tradition we will do for years to come!

She also wanted to wear her wings out to the playground. I wanted her to wear wings for Halloween, but when I tried to put them on her she would start screaming and take them off but of course the day before Halloween she wanted to wear her wings out to the playground! She's a silly girl

Uh oh! am I in trouble? =) This girl is obsessed with our bathroom cabinets. Last week she had spilled a whole bottle of baby powder all over our bathroom and the other day it was lotion. She just loves getting into things

Sweet and Sassy

Today I was having a conversation with one of my friends about how difficult having a child like Makayla is. She couldn't imagine having such a hyper wild child that throws extreme tantrums the way Kayla does. And to be honest pretty much all my friends with children have told me one time or another how overwhelming it looks being her mom or how stressful it would be. Being mom to her is and has always been super hard and challenging and through out the mix of it all we still want another baby. There are times it is hard staying in one piece and most of the time I'm out with friends I spend the majority of the time chasing after her or trying to discipline (because I don't want to be the parent that ignores their kids bad behavior just so i don't look stupid in front of people. What does that teach your kids) but when my friend had left I broke down in tears went over to Makayla and gave her the biggest hug and kiss (while she was trying to push me away ) I told her how much I love her. My friends don't get to see the sweet beautiful girl that I see as often as I'd like them to see. But even though being her mom I have more trials and challenges than the normal mom I feel like It might just be more rewarding at the same time. I recognize every tiny sweet or nice thing she does. It may be hard having her scream at me in the car, but because what she really wants is for her mommy to reach back to hold her hand that that calms her down how can I not love her. I get to have more eye opening moments of how much she means to me and I don't take any moment for granted. I love her more than anything in the entire world. She is my Makayla sweet and sassy but none the less she my my angel and I wouldn't trade her in for anything!

Labor Day Fun!

This weekend my parents came into town along with Roberts sister. We had so much fun and LOVE when we have company.

Check out Makayla sporting her glasses. She cracks me up she will put them on and just hang out in them especially in the car with the sun is in her eyes. I love it!
She got to spend some one on one time with grandma and grandpa Sorensen. They spoil her with attention 24/7 and she can never get enough

Makayla finally got over her intense shyness. She still gets a little shy but it doesn't take days for her to warm up to people. She would run up to Tonya all weekend to have her hold her, she even ran to her before me when we got her from nursery...needless to say Makayla is going to miss her aunt Tonya tons!

She is getting more and more beautiful!

We had the best weekend. Every time we get visitors we are just so happy, its so nice to have family come visit us, since its normally us the one who travels to see people so its always a great change to have them make time to come see us. Thanks mom, dad and Tonya! We love you tons!

As far as Makayla goes, she is still our active little girl. I've taken her bottles away completely which wasn't very hard (except for her daddy who loves to rely on them) and she now only gets her Binky at bedtime/nap time and in the car (cuz she hates the car and screams without it). I kept thinking that the reason she wasn't talking much was because she had her Binky in her mouth 24/7 so that's why I decided to take it (even though they say it doesn't delay their speech) well since I've taken it she has used her words much more. Today she has been saying please tons so I know it was restricting her vocab. She really is growing like a weed and its so fun to watch her learn more. Her new thing now is opening and closing all the doors in the house. She loves getting up from bed now and come out cuz she can, so we have found a way to tie the door closed so she cant come out hopefully sometime soon she will just go back to how it used to be and just go straight to bed. We just love her so much!!

love her!

We got a new camera so here are some new pictures of Makayla

Emotional Rollercoaster!

Okay so since I don't have a working camera and haven't been able to catch any new moments of Makayla (which I'm totally bummed about ugh) and have been looking at my blog lately totally sad that I cant add pictures I thought well...I could always tell the world how I'm feeling in this moment so here I go...

Lately I have been feeling so sad that I'm still not pregnant. We are going on 11 months of actively "trying" although we've never used anything so thinking like that gets me ever more frustrated (sorry if tmi). Don't get me wrong I'm so grateful that I even have a baby, she is just amazing, but that's kind of what gets us even more sad because we know how much we love her and we just want to experience that with another one and have a sibling for Makayla not to mention we want 5 kids and yes you didn't ready that wrong we want 5! ha but...why in the heck does it have to take so long and be such a process? I know its not like we've been trying for years so why am I so down? There are so many women in this world that cant even have children, but then again there are so many women and young girls that get pregnant and they don't even want to be. I know whether they want to be or it just happens its all hard. 6 months or 2 years when your ready its still so hard when each month nothing happens.
I had an ultrasound done a few weeks ago and some other simple tests and everything came back normal so what the heck. There are defiantly days that are better than others and I haven't really stressed too much about it, until just recently and its not so much stress its just sadness. I feel like everyday there is another person on facebook (ha yes facebook) that is announcing they are pregnant, or women in church who are pregnant and I'm over joy'd with happiness for them, but cant help but get emotional. I have been telling myself when the time is right it will happen for so long, and that's how it was when we were trying for Makayla (it took a year to get pregnant with her) but then I wonder why cant the time be right this month? or even next? I don't know I'm just so emotional I probably shouldn't even be sharing all this. Okay I know I have to suck it up, because I know I'm not the only one in the world going through this (although it feels like it sometimes) and be grateful for my beautiful daughter and to not give up hope and move forward.

Anyways I'm going to quit writing now sometimes it feels better to write things down then hold it all in, except I don't really know if this is one of those times. =(

Grand Canyon 2010

okay so our camera broke sometime during one of our trips and it lost all of our pictures =( so here are just a few that I got from some of my family of our Grand Canyon Trip. We have had such a great summer. We went to Jamaica, California a few times, Utah, Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon. It has been very busy for us, but we are now home and enjoying our relaxing time.

The views were amazing, it was Roberts first time going to the Grand Canyon so it was great experiencing it again with him and Makayla. (we watched her like a hawk) it is pretty dang scary bringing kids there but we all survived!

We had the Sorensen family reunion in Flagstaff and had a great time. It was a little interesting camping in a tent with Makayla for the first time. Lets just say we probably wont be camping for quite a while, but it was still great being with family. Luckily after the Reunion my parents and brothers stayed in a cabin the rest of the time so it was pretty fun.


all in all we had a wonderful time on all our different vacations. We got to be with Robs family in Utah where Makayla got to hang out with her cousins which she loved. We all went to Lagoon and had lots of fun, and we got to visit our good friends Russ and Kristen and their little boy Baylor who we hadn't seen since before we even got pregnant with our kids so it was awesome to see them as well. It was great going to Cali for the Millers reunion and hanging out at the beach (even though it was overcast most of the time). I'm sad all our vacations are over until thanksgiving and Christmas, but I do have to say how happy we are to not be driving anymore. Makayla did not to well in the car. I hate that we live so far from all our family from both sides, but feel so lucky and blessed to have each one of them in our lives and for all their support. Thanks everyone for making our trips so memorable (even if I couldn't capture them on camera)

Its about time...

Makayla finally turned back into her sweet loving funny self again! From about 11 months until 15 months lets just say parenthood was super challenging. Its no surprise that she started her terrible two's right when she turned one. She has been advanced with everything so why not be early at being naughty too right? Well she defiantly was testing us to our limits. She knew what we didn't want her to do, but did it anyways with that look in her eye. I know kids will always test the limits and she definitely knew exactly what buttons to push to make mommy and daddy go over the edge. I was feeling very frustrated, sad, disappointed, stressed and just like the worst mother of the year. It was extremely hard trying to tell her "its not funny to run into the street" and "you cant jump in the pool when we aren't ready to catch you" not to mention just the simple non life threatening things like running away as fast as she could just so we wouldn't take whatever she had in her hands away and turn around with that ha ha I can get away with anything look.

Well she has finally quit throwing her crazy tantrums 24/7. She started listening so so so much better. This past month has been very rewarding as a parent. Makayla has been so sweet and super funny. This girl can make us laugh till we're on the ground. Her listening skills have improved drastically and she is able to communicate so much better. Mommy hasn't cried to daddy at how stressed and frustrated she is. She hasn't had to tell her little girl NO as much or put her in a different room while she' s throwing a tantrum while I cried trying to get through the day. Lets just say I'm crying in a very proud couldn't be happier way now. I'm soaking in every bit of this wonderful stage Makayla is in before its back to tantrums and naughtiness. It is still so crazy to me how one tiny little person could make someone so frustrated and then one minute later feel like the happiest person alive. It really is the best thing to watch your child grow and learn more things. My baby is long gone and my little toddler is here and she is absolutely so much fun.

Summer has begun!

Yay for summer!! So far we have had a great beginning to summer. Makayla and I have spent a lot of time in the water, from the tiny pool in our backyard, to the public pool that she LOVES, to the splash pad at the mall. Outside is where this little girl loves to be and now that it is getting extremely hot we pretty much can only go outside if there is water.

Roberts sister Tonya came out to visit us for Memorial weekend. It took a while for Makayla to warm up to her, but once she did she had lots of fun with Tonya. Thanks so much for coming here to spend time with us we had such a great time!

my sister surprised me and came here too the same weekend Tonya came out and we all had such a good time. My sister and I took Makayla to the public pool and she got to see how much kayla loves playing in the water. My brother came over and we all had a BBQ, we went to the mall and played in the splash pad and overall just had a great time. Thanks Lacey for coming out here it was such a great surprise and one I definitely needed.

we have so much going on this summer. Makayla and I are going to Cali next week to spend some time at the beach. Also we have my family reunion in July along with Robs reunion in San Diego and we want to go visit family and friends in utah sometime so we have a great summer ahead of us. Makayla is really at such a fun age she is learning so much. She can finally really communicate with us by sign language. She knows how to say please, more, drink, eat and all done all in sign language. She has really turned into such a fun little girl. She loves to play hide and seek (I hide and she seeks) its the best when I scare her it cracks her up. She will randomly say words like please, Ayden (the kid I nanny) of course mommy and daddy. Mainly daddy all day unless she is crying for me to hold her or when she had food poisoning all I heard was mom..mommy while she was snuggling me, poor girl! and will randomly copy things we say and do. Lets just say she keeps us entertained constantly!

unstoppable

This song unstoppable is almost like a soundtrack to my life. I made some wrong turns in life, but with the love from my heavenly father I turned it around and now have such an amazing life. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful husband and daughter. My love for them and my Heavenly Father is unstoppable.

Here are some pictures of my greatest blessing in life. Makayla is growing up so fast and she is learning so much. I love her!

Jamaica!

okay so get ready for a serious amount of pictures! We had such an amazing time in Jamaica! It was way too short of a trip, but we were sure happy to come home and see Makayla. We stayed in an all inclusive resort, so we got EVERYTHING and anything we wanted whenever we wanted it. No wallet, it was so great. We had a virgin strawberry daiquiri, pina colada, and the BEST fruit punch in the world at all times.

Here's us at the swim up bar with our awesome drinks! Life could not be better!

eating at the Italian restaurant, and the best part, no wallet no tip. All tips and taxes were included in our trip. =)

When we first arrived to the airport there were these cool guys playing Jamaican music. It really got our vacation on the roll

they upgraded our room to a beach front ocean view. It was pretty nice waking up to the crystal clear ocean

This is the view from our balcony

I actually got Robert to dance with me!

We'd race down the waterslides, but I'd always get stuck. I think I was too light for the water to pull me as fast as Robert. It was funny!

There was a minature golf course so we played a little.

I could get used to this sunset everyday! I'm so sad we're not at the beach anymore

We hung out on this cute bungalow watching the sunset almost every night it was perfect