KJ, Rachael, and Layla

Happy Birthday Layla!! I cannot believe my "baby" is 2! She has gotten so big and does not act like a baby anymore :( Just in the last couple of months she has changed so much. She can say anything she wants to and talks to me all day long, non stop! She loves to sing and dance and runs wherever she goes. We cannot take our eyes off of her, or are hands, haha when we are out somewhere b/c she will take off as quickly as she can! Layla has her "ugly" moments every once in a while but most of the time she is sweet as pie and her mommy and daddy love her very much!!! :)

Well, I have no excuse for not blogging....I just haven't been in the mood to do it! I'll start back in May when we went to San Diego with KJ's family. We did the same trip 2 years ago so I knew what to expect which helped with Layla. I was very nervous about the plane ride with her but she actually did really well! It helped that we were on the same flight with her cousins :) She watched movies and ate snacks and was pretty happy! Layla and I both got a little sick while we were there but it didn't last long for either of us. We stayed around the house most of the time b/c it has a pool and a great backyard with a playset and lots of fun toys for the kids. Our big outing this year was Disneyland! I was soooo excited to go b/c I have been to Disneyworld as a child and can't wait to go back. Layla got to ride a lot of the rides and she actually took a nap in her stroller, which i never thought she would do! We had so much fun, it just went by way too fast of course!

I realize I am very late with this post, but better late than never right? :) Layla is 19 months and as busy as every! She really keeps me going constantly but she is so much fun! She is really talking a lot with a few real words scattered here and there. She definitely knows how to tell us what she wants! Something really exciting to happen recently is our friends Matt and Kelli had their little baby boy Connor! He is so precious, I really miss having Layla that small! No, we are not ready to have another one in the near future :) We took Layla to visit them in the hospital and it did not go exactly the way i thought it would. I thought Layla would be so excited b/c she loves her baby dolls and always talks to babies at church but she was very unsure. I think it was partly a little jealousy b/c i was holding him. She had a slight meltdown! Well today we went to their house to visit and it went so much better! She was patting him and loving on him :) I know they are going to be great little friends really soon!!

Well, Nashville had their big snow! KJ actually got 1 1/2 days off work so we had lots of play time. Layla, surprisingly loved the snow! She wasn't interested in acutally playing in it, she just wanted to walk all around the neighborhood. She did NOT want to come in, she pitched a fit every time!

I think we had the busiest December I have ever had!! We had a total of SIX Christmases this year!! Lots of pics to follow! I think Layla actually realized a little bit what was going on this year. She definitely got into opening presents. We did all of our normal get togethers, plus we got to see my cousin Jocelyn who has been in Russia as a missionary for 2 years. She had not seen Layla yet so we were so excited to get to see her while she was home! This was also the first year that everyone on KJ's side of the family was able to be together. At his extened family Christmas there were 30 adults and 16 children, I may be off by 1 or 2, so it was a little crazy but so much fun!!

We had a great Thanksgiving with KJ's family this year! I did terrible taking pictures, but i did get these few "attempts" of the stiles cousins :)




Cal-4 Chase-3 Lexi-2 Layla-1 Tate- 7months

We had a really fun halloween this year with Layla. She really liked wearing her costume and liked seeing everyone else dressed up too :) We did trunk or treat at church, then went trick or treating with the cousins!


trunk or treat

little pink poodle!

poodle, bumble bee, and superman!




eating a dum dum!