Malaya Sledding

Malaya would count to three at the top of the driveway and Greg would send her on her way. All bundled up... she probably could have stayed out there all day.
p.s. Sorry this is sideways.

So much to be Thankful for

For Thanksgiving this year we headed to Midway, Utah to spend time with Greg's family. I had to be back to work for Black Friday, so we ended up going the Saturday before Thanksgiving for a longer trip. We had a great time and Malaya definitely got a lot of attention.
It was nice to relax and just hang out and we were sad to leave.

We celebrated Cheri's birthday when we got there. She got a train set for all the (future) grand kids to play with. Malaya loved it! She wasn't quite big enough to push the pedal down to make it go, so Greg had to rig it for her... she loved it.
Happy Birthday Grandma Cheri! Malaya was also treated to a kids entertainment play land (kind of like a Chucky Cheese). There were a bunch of fun rides and games to play and it was all indoors. Malaya was a little hesitant to go on the rides, but she defiantly had fun running all around with the other kids. Grandpa helping Malaya All the Girls

me, Jenny, Cheri, Jessica

Thanksgiving morning we bundled up and headed out into the -14 degree weather for a 5K. We must be crazy! It was cold.. but not to bad once you got going... and of course we all finished in record time :)
Here we are sporting our sweet turkey day shirts.
*everyone except Greg (who had a really bad cold), and Ben (who was just to chicken to bear the cold) :)
It snowed a ton while we were there... so Malaya got to do a little sledding in the driveway. We had a great time and we are so thankful we were able to go and spend time with the fam. We are thankful for so many things, including the gospel, our jobs, and our sweet little Malaya who we love soooo much!

PG aka "Puke Girl"

Time: 230am
Date: Nov 2010
Location: Malaya's Bed
Incident: PUKE!

Okay, so for those of you that know me (you shouldn't be reading this blog if you don't) you probably know that I was once known as the infamous Puke Girl (or PG for short) back in my high school days. Yes, it sounds horrible... and that's because it was. I was blessed with an incredibly weak stomach... so let's just say car rides, fair grounds, or the occasional stay up way to late and eat junk food with my girlfriends... wasn't the best on my stomach. Sadly, I have thrown up at just about every friends house, or their parents cars, or at every summer fairgrounds possible. Yuck... Well, over the years my ability to make it to the bathroom has gotten much better and these throw up sessions have been few and far between (except for the THREE months I was puking my guts out while I was pregnant with Malaya, and the yearly flu).

Well... now it's payback time!!!

Actually, I would say my payback began when Malaya was about a month old. She would throw up just as soon as she was done eating... always drenching herself and me. Let's just say- in the first eight months of Malaya's life.... the washer got a beating!

This brings me to the reason for me posting. I just wanted to share with all of you one of my wonderfully eventful night. It started off great. Malaya in bed before 11pm, just starting to fall in that deep deep sleep... when suddenly (at 230 am) I hear Malaya crying out for dada. I go to pick her up and make it to the door way of our bedroom, when I realize that her blanket is wet and it smells like PUKE! Yuck... I called for Greg to turn the lights on and help me out. Turns out that Greg had given Malaya two botles attempting to put her to bed (while I was at work).... and I gave her another one shortly after (without knowing she already had two). Well, lets just say the smell was bad enough that even Greg threw up! Great! Now I had two messes to clean. We ended up putting Malaya in the bath and starting a load of laundy at 3 am... sorry to our downstairs neighbors. I would go into more detail, but at the risk of causing others to puke, I will resist. :)

Trunk -or- Treat

Happy Halloween!!

Saturday night our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat. It was a lot of fun. Malaya apparently wanted to be a witch for Halloween... she kept sealing the hat from the table next to us and running off with it on her head. The kids did a little parade around the gym and up onto the stage. When it was Malaya's turn, she got to the middle of the stage and tripped... then got up and waved to everyone and everyone laughed... ooops! :) After some Chili we headed out side for the candy. Malaya didn't really understand what was going on, but loved running all over the parking lot with the kids. Their was a family that brought their 20ft haunted trailer that was decked out with strobe lights and people in masks. It was a lot of fun and a great turn out.

Carving Pumpkins

Last Sunday we invited my family over to carve pumpkins and my mom and I made caramel popcorn. Yum!

Even Malaya got to join in on the fun and had her own little pumpkin. Then we gave Grandma a sneak peek of Malaya's costume...
Afterwards it was time for a bath...
and this is what I found when I went to check on Daddy and Malaya :)

Malaya- 16 months

I can't hardly believe my little monkey is 16 months old!
Malaya is so full of life and has so much energy. She is always running all around the house and getting into (and on top of) everything she can find. A few words she has recently added to her vocabulary are: dog, cow, cheese, movie, more, knock knock, car, and horse. She can also point to animals in her books and make all the animal sounds. She can count to three and loves to watch Barney and the Dinosaur Train. She loves playing hide-n-seek and making forts with daddy. Malaya loves hearing the train go by and always makes a train sound while moving her arms up and down. So Cute! We love our sweet Malaya!

Night night time!

Malaya has recently made a transition from this: TO THIS!!! Let's just say...it was not my choice to have her make this transition at only 16 months old.... but she had figured out how to climb out and make it into our room for three nights in a row.... so we had no choice. Usually Malaya is a really good sleeper and will sleep the whole night no problem.... but not any more!! UGH! I even bought her a pillow cover with Buzz Lightyear (her favorite character from Toy Story) but she wants nothing to do with her new bed. We have been trying to read her some books and get her used to a routine but it has been really hard to get her to stay in bed. We have had two successful nights so far (out of 2 WEEKS!) but I am not giving up... she will learn to like her bed and that's that! :)

What we've been up to this Summer...

We went to McCall, Idaho for Greg's family reunion. We had a blast and it was great to get away from work and life's daily stresses. We had condos close to the lake and Malaya loved every bit of it. The weather was great and hanging at the beach was very relaxing. We also went rafting down the Salmon river in Riggins, Idaho. It was a lot of fun... and Grandma and Grandpa volunteered to watch Malaya while we went... thanks guys! We had lots of yummy food and water sports as well.

That same weekend just happened to be our
SIXTH anniversary!
Greg got me a nice set of snorkels and fins and we went exploring around the lake....okay... so we didn't see anything great cuz the water was pretty murky, but it was the thought that counts and we still had fun :)
Happy anniversary babe! I love you!

We also took a trip down to Stanley, Idaho for my family reunion. We traveled about 10 1/2 hours to get there... but we had a good time and it was great to see family that we hadn't seen in years. A big shout out to my cousin Jessica for putting the whole thing together. THANKS JESSICA! We spent 3 nights camping, eating, swimming, fishing, roasting marsh mellows, and playing games. We also went to the hot springs and took a trip to Ghost town (an old mining town that was abandoned after the mine shut down and was now turned into a self guided museum). We had a lot of fun and Malaya loved every minute of it. Unfortunately I forgot my camera battery so I only got a few shots with my phone. The picture on the right was our last day... Malaya was so worn out. I tried to keep her clean before the long car ride home... but as you can see I was unsuccessful. Oh well, that's the joy of camping. :)

What we've been up to this Summer... (part 2)

We have spent many Summer days at different parks. Downtown Spokane has a fun carousel ride and Malaya loves it. We also have a brand new park close to our house that has a splash pad and tons of cool toys. Malaya loves to swing and go down the slides. She loves seeing all the kids and saying "Hi" to everyone.

We have also gone on lots of Sunday walks...
of course after our Sunday naps... if we can get one.

This was at our ward picnic. Malaya ate pretty much the whole ice cream cone and lots of watermelon. It was a huge mess- but at least she was happy... right?

We have a nice family that lives below us and their kids are always outside playing. Alexa, who is 3 and just adores Malaya and is so sweet to her, and Manuel, who is 5 and loves to show Malaya his bike and scooter. They invited us to a fiesta, which was a joint birthday party for their kids at the park. Turns out we were the only Caucasian family that attended... can we say awkward?? Oh well, Malaya had fun and they even let her hit the pinata :)

We had a fun and busy summer- and of course it went by way to fast!

WARNING: BLOG OVERLOAD

It has been a while... and much has happened, so sorry for all the postings at once :)

Last week we went to River Front Park.
Malaya had a blast walking all around and chasing the ducks.

There is also a big water attraction there and of course we couldn't keep Malaya out of it. We didn't plan on getting her wet.... but she loved it, and screamed every time we walked away so we let her play.

Eventually she just ended up in her diaper because all her clothes were soaked.

Malaya with her daddy going down the big red wagon slide

Just too many cute pictures to choose only one...

Tyler and Aimee's Wedding May 29th

Congratulations to Tyler and Aimee!
Their wedding was in Blackfoot, Idaho over memorial weekend.
It rained a little, and was pretty cold, but everything turned out great.

All the girls helped out with the flowers for tables, boutineers, and the bouquet. There were 200 pink roses and also beautiful tulips from the garden that we used. It all turned out great (especially considering I learned how to do this from YouTube! :)
Aimee had me do her hair the the weeding, I think it turned out pretty good.
All the bridesmaids had pink and black polk-a-dot dresses made by Aimee's mom.
She even made one for Malaya. They were so cute.

Good luck to Tyler and Aimee with their new adventures!

*Malaya Turns 1*

I can't believe it... My little monkey is 1! Time has gone by so fast!

It seems like just yesterday we were telling family that we were expecting a girl....
And then we welcomed this sweet little spirit on June 5th, 2009.
AND NOW... She is 1!
We had my family over for pizza, cake, and presents. I made cupcakes for everyone, and Malaya got her own. She loved it- and surprisingly didn't make too much of a mess. She loved opening all her presents and getting all the attention... she even missed her nap and was still so happy. In the pictures above, you can see the polk-a-dot theme we had and her fun new jungle gym from Grandpa and Grandma Mitchell. Once everyone left we headed to the YMCA to go swimming. Malaya LOVES the water!
We even took her down the slides and she loved every bit of it.

At one years old Malaya is:
Walking, dancing, pulling apart everything in the house, loves talking to people, loves to go to the park, love puppies, loves her stuffed animals, she likes picking outfits to wear for the day, loves taking a bath and running naked afterwards while we chase her with a diaper (yes, she has had a few accidents on the floor). Malaya loves life and is so full of energy. She keeps us very busy and entertained. She now gives kisses to everyone that asks and is always talking on her pink cell phone (and when there is no cell phone, she just uses her hand) so so so funny to listen to her babel on to herself and her imaginary friends.
We love you Malaya!
Happy 1st Birthday!

Plato's Closet Conference

I took a trip to San Diego for a Plato's Closet conference in May. We had some manager workshops/ training, lots of food, and beautiful sunshine. It was my first time leaving Malaya so I was really nervous, but she did great.

Thanks to my wonderful husband for staying home and taking care of her. I took my computer so I got to skype them each night which was great... but made me miss her even more! She was just beginning to take a few steps so I was sad that she would already be walking by the time I got home... but she waited a little longer :)