Saturday, July 6, 2013

PURPILICIOUS TURNS 4!!!!


Our Layla bug is growing too quickly! She awoke today squealing in delight when she saw her room filled with purple balloons covering the floor! Layla loves PURPLE EVERYTHING. Our house is filled with crayons of every color except purple these days, because she has used every single purple crayon each time she colors. She won't color or paint anything except purple! So cute.
She planned a PURPILICIOUS PARTY based on the book. We let Layla chose the activities, the food, she helped pick out he decorations and invitations. She couldn't get enough purple. This morning she requested purple pancakes, so we're headed upstairs right now. We've spent the morning talking about her Katie Angel and how tiny Layla was when she was born. She loved seeing pictures of herself wearing her little newborn"sunglasses" in the hospital. And she always loves to hear the story of her angel helping her find her mom and dad.

We'll post pictures later today after her party! She's hosting a party for 11 friends today and a dinner party for all of our family tomorrow after church! We love you all and count our many blessings to have Layla bug in our family. She is a joy, a light, and the life of our souls.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

BEAUTY


Kevin took this picture of Layla yesterday when we stopped by his office to visit. We had just been to the local Bird Aviary on a field trip for Layla's Joy School Group. She is so beautiful. Later that night when Kevin showed me this picture, for some reason, it literally took my breath away and tears began to well in my eyes. I am so blessed. She is a miracle. And my second thought after seeing this picture was, "she looks just like her Katie Angel." Oh how I'm sure Grandma Cindy can probably see the resemblance! Those sparkling eyes... just like her Angel.

How is she growing up so quickly?

Friday, February 22, 2013

YEAR OF THE SNAKE


Chinese New Year traditions are still going strong around here. 
Layla is as beautiful and vivacious as ever.
She sings all day. Non stop. She sings about everything and it's the perfect soundtrack to our lives.
She is amazingly talented and as smart as a whip. 
Her gift for music is unbelievable and she can remember a song after only hearing it once or twice.

She loves primary. She is a Sunbeam. 
How time flies.
She loves her family. She loves her bike. She loves to hike. And she loves to play house.
She calls her brothers "the brother bears" and if you're playing house with her... she gets to be the mom and I get to be "sweetie" 
She's a miracle in every sense of the word. 


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

UNDER THE SEA & TURNING THREE


How is Layla three whole years already? We're not ready to say we have a three year old... it seems too grown up. But here she is and she's amazing. She is growing into the funniest, feistiest, and darlingest (not a word but sooo describes her) little girl. Her little personality is coming out and it's hilarious some of the things she says. Kevin and I just look at each other and wonder "where did that come from?" She makes the funniest facial expressions and she loves to laugh.

Layla picked the theme for her upcoming birthday party - UNDER THE SEA. She helped stuff the candy and prizes in the fish pinata that she picked out. The kids will go fishing over the sea scape scene decorated fence for a prize of sorts. We've made sandcastle play-doh and the children will each get to create and decorate with sea shells, their own sandcastle to take home. Layla wanted to serve gummy fish, gummy sharks, and gummy octopus treats along with gold-fish crackers and blue punch. She can hardly wait and is just ecstatic about her party. She tells every stranger in the grocery store about it and she recites perfectly "my birthday is July 6th."

She's the best big sister there is and she adores her "brother bears," as we like to call them. We still call her by the nick name Buca Bird (don't know where that even came from but it has stuck) She starts Joy School this fall and she can't wait to wear a back pack (a pack pack is her name for it). We've settled into our new home and she absolutely loves having her own big girl room and a big girl bed. She has a wonderful imagination and loves to dress up and pretend to be a mom. She always says to her brothers, "I'll be the mom and you be the babies... do you need a drink of juice or do you want me to sing you a song?"

She's fire and ice and sometimes her stubborn temper gets the best of her but she seems to enjoy understanding the boundaries and knowing the rules. She likes to please and loves to hear us tell her how proud we are of her when she makes good choices.

She is amazing and we can't believe she's such a big girl. She's still our baby girl and we still love to snuggle her in bed and baby her every once in awhile.

She knows her story now by heart. The one we tell her at night about how an angel helped her find us and how she helped her angel find her Heavenly Father again. She says, "and Katie Angel snuggled me and fed me a bottle like you feed baby Owen?" And we tell her how loved she is by people all over the world. She smiles and her spirit lights up as if to say, "wow, I'm so lucky."

She's little ripper on the bike these days.

And as you can tell by her smile... she LOVES when dad takes her on bike rides in the trailer.

Breakfast on the deck with dad has become a new tradition at the new house and she insists on eating toast with honey EVERY single morning.



Wednesday, March 21, 2012

A SPECIAL DAY

Exiting the temple

All the cousins

Hugs for mom
 Laughter with Grammy


beautiful smile... beautiful girl

 Hugs and kisses for her favorite brother. Layla and Rider act like twins they are both so enamored with each other. And now they're sealed for eternity and we feel so blessed.


Saturday, March 3, 2012

I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE

Layla trying on her temple dress and shoes and giving her best "Cheeze" for the camera

Layla has been preparing to go to the temple again this week. She couldn't be more excited for her brother to be a part of her family forever. We've spent many of our recent family home evenings talking about eternal families and what it means to go to the temple to be sealed. She has been practicing her "temple voice" which means she whispers. And she can't wait to play with the toys in the temple nursery as she waits for the ceremony to begin. She wants to wear her white temple dress every day and we have to explain to her that it's only for the temple - every day :) She's been practicing praying and because her brothers have both been quite sick these past few weeks she has witnessed her dad and grandpa give them blessings. So now she talks about going to the temple to have special blessings and special prayers. And each night as we tuck her into bed she sings "I love to see the temple." Her sweet angelic voice is the closest thing to an angel on earth as one could imagine - enjoy:

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

YEAR OF THE DRAGON

We celebrated... a week late, but better late than never!
It was as fabulous as always.
Layla was a doll and the life of the party
We're so blessed to celebrate her in so many ways each year!


Happy 2012 Chinese New Year!