November 2014 - Birthdays, Birthdays, and more Birthdays! (Picture OVERLOAD!)

November is just full of birthdays in these families of ours. Parents, siblings, nieces, David, and Kollyn. We started off this month with David's birthday on the 5. I bought him a bunch of Batman things (a mug, a travel cup, a couple of magnets, some new sweat pants (Thanks for the tip Nancy, he loves them!), and a metal vintage Batman poster) and then we went to try the Pizzaria 712 which so many people rave about. It was pretty good. They had different flavors of pizza that I'd never thought of, but were still good. We got a regular one with sausage, bacon, and onions and we also tried a butternut squash and Gorgonzola cheese. It was a strange combination but it worked and it was pretty tasty. :) I also made this poster for him with Kollyn's feet. I got the idea from my awesome friend Tiffany who did it for her husband's birthday with her little girl who is the same age as Kollyn. K actually was really still and let me paint her feet and everything. She did flinch a little and giggle because when I painted her feet it tickled, but she held really still while I put her feet on the canvas, which was really great.

On November 8, we had a small party to celebrate David, my niece Aleah, and my niece Riley who all had birthdays the first week of November. My parents had been on vacation in New Zealand and wanted to celebrate when they got home so we went to my sister's house and had a little party. It was a lot of fun, and they even brought back a little stuffed kiwi bird for Kollyn, which she loves. Stuffed animals are the way to that girl's heart. :) She snuggles with her penguin every night (those Dynes family members will know the story behind David's stuffed penguin) and she loves it. She'll sit in her bed every morning and just jabber to it, which is nice for me because I don't have to get out of bed when she gets up. We usually meander out of bed at 9:30 and I love it. Sometimes when I go in, she won't let me get her out of her bed, she just wants me to turn on the light. This little girl really loves her sleep and that makes David and I happy. :)

I love this picture. Carli and Kenley love playing with their "baby Kollyn" and she loves all the attention from them. She smiles and giggles and runs around with them and it's so fun to watch! I love watching her play with her cousins!

We live right around the corner from our church building so, since winter doesn't realize it's suppose to be cold, we walk to church some weeks, which Kollyn loves. She also loves taking her stuffed animals to church and the last few weeks, we've actually even been able to sit through all of Sacrament Meeting, which is huge. She normally was super wiggly and wouldn't sit still and would cry if we made her. Now she's ok sitting on David's lap, my lap, or the chair next to us while she has her snacks or her toys. It helps a lot.

David is really liking his job. Sometimes his meetings go longer than he'd like, but he enjoys what he's doing and the perks from the company are awesome. And the environment is great too. We love going to visit him during lunch and Kollyn liked being able to play in his office since it was a new place. She liked sitting in the chair by him, "helping" him type, and playing "find the snack" on the floor. It was a welcome break for both of us and helped us to keep from going stir crazy.

We have had a lot of fun watching Luke, K's cousin, and Oliver, my friend Maddie's little boy. Kollyn and Luke love playing together. They follow each other around all over the place and love to share toys, snacks, anything else they can get their hands on. Luke also knows how to get the lid off the puffs container so one day I looked away for a minute and looked back to this. He had gotten the lid off and then he and K had dumped all the puffs out on the floor of the living room and were eating them. It was a mess, but it was really cute at the same time.  It was so much fun to be able to watch him a couple days a week. We also loved watching Oliver grow up over the semester. We started watching him when he was just over 2 months old and now he's almost 6 and he's just grown so much. It has been fun to see. 

Luke felt the need to take a selfie and I had to share. Karin and David have one of the smiliest kids I've ever seen and I loved being able to capture it. He sure got excited about getting his picture taken!

I also thought it was funny that Kollyn really likes to sit in the Bumbo more now than when she was smaller. She'll sit in it and eat snacks, read her books, play with her toys, and whatever else she feels like doing at the moment. She'll pick it up and move it over where she wants it, then set it down and sit in it. It's so cute!

This kid cracks me up. I was doing my hair one day and she came in, saw all her bath toys (bath time is one of her favorite times of the day), and climbed into the bath tub where she played for about 15 minutes without even looking up at me. It was so fun to watch her climb into the tub. It took her a few minutes to figure it out, but she kept at it and was really proud of herself when she finally got in. She looked up at me with a huge grin and then started playing with her rubber ducks. We call her our "little explorer" because she is constantly on the move, looking for new things, exploring life. She loves going outside and experiencing new things. She isn't afraid of stuff, except going down the stairs since she fell down once, and loves to run at life full speed ahead. She has the most adorable personality and she is getting more and more adorable every day!

We did Thanksgiving at my parents' house the day after Thanksgiving, since that's our family tradition. Kollyn had a lot of fun at her first Thanksgiving (well, her first out of the womb experience) and loved playing with all her Bonner cousins. Even the Bonner cousins from California were here. Gemma is only 10 months older than Kollyn so they get along in a fun way and Hazel, Carli, and Kenley all loved playing with her too (like always). 

Kollyn enjoyed her Thanksgiving meal. She had ham, turkey, stuffing, potatoes (always a huge hit), and green bean casserole (she loves green beans). We also had fun riding in the tractor bucket for the first time. She kept saying "Woah!" the whole time (her new favorite word) and looking around with a huge smile and wide eyes, like she couldn't look at everything fast enough. I liked being able to experience it with her because I have such great memories of it from when I was little. I'm glad we're able to share those things with her.

Sunday, November 30, was Kollyn's first birthday but we had her birthday party on Saturday, November 29, because my siblings were still here but were leaving that day. We were really glad they stayed long enough to let us have her party, though we're sorry it took us so long to get up there and made you guys leave later than you wanted to (Thanks Todd and Angie for being so great about it!!!!). She was happy to share her first birthday with her cousins, I'm sure.

And now, be prepared for first time mom, first birthday, picture overload!

She wasn't sure what to think of the streamers at first, since she's never really seen them like this before.

It's hard to believe this little girl is a one year old now. It feels like it's been forever since she came into our lives, but it also feels like it's been a blink and passed by. I, for one, am loving this stage the most so far. I love that she's independent (she doesn't like us feeding her much anymore if she can do it herself), she snuggles every once in a while, and her personality is so big and bright that it's hard to have a day that's the same. We let her pick out the crown (it was a choice between the princess crown and a ladybug hat since she loves the Very Hungary Caterpillar) and she had fun wearing it, even if it was only for a few minutes before she took it off.

She loved having everyone's attention and getting to be in the spotlight, since she's absolutely NEVER in the spotlight. She was hamming it up for everyone, like she always does. She'd laugh, and that would make everyone else laugh, which would make her laugh, and make everyone else laugh. She'll keep doing that forever if you let her, which is so fun. She loves making people smile and laugh and will do anything to get those reactions from people.

This is my attempt at a Very Hungary Caterpillar cupcake cake. It's her favorite book and so we decided to do it this way, to make it easier for everyone to eat. I actually really like how it ended up looking, even if the face does look a little funny. :) And it was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be!

At first she wasn't sure what to do about the cupcake. She has had cake before, but not with frosting, so she didn't know what to think at first, so she tested it with her finger, and then just face planted right in. She then proceeded to licking off all the frosting and leaving the cake, but it was a funny thing to watch. Then she tried to get all the frosting off her fingers, but ended up getting most of it in her hair. It was a great experience for us and we loved sharing it with my family.

Then we opened presents. She got a big toy dog that she can ride on, push around, and "feed". It makes sounds, plays music (thankfully a lot of different songs so it doesn't get too repetitive), There is one similar to it at her doctor's office and she loves it, so we thought she might like one and it has been a big hit so far. 

She also got a stuffed bear from my Aunt Kaye (she's holding it in the last picture), a new Christmas dress (we found it at Costco and it was the only one in her size, and we had looked there every time we went for about a month and they only had 4T for the longest time), a bunch of wooden cars on a string that she likes to carry around the house, and a mini version of our water bottles since she loves to drink out of our water bottles. We found a few that were smaller, and easier for her to carry, so we decided to give her one for her birthday. She has carried it all over the place since then. :) She's even perfected opening and closing it. She is so smart. She learns things so quickly and doesn't get frustrated when she can't figure something out right away. She works at it and that is something I need to learn, and I get to learn it from her. She gets very focused when she's concentrating on something and not much can get her out of it. It's cute to see that kind of concentration in her.

She is very much like David in more ways than one. She is very social, loves to entertain people, and doesn't have a problem chatting up a storm to complete strangers. She gets very focused on something and doesn't want to stop doing it, just like he does. She gets very excited about things when she gets them figured out. She loves to be silly, make people laugh, and loves getting good reactions out of people. If she sees you're upset, she'll come over and give you a hug, or a kiss, both of which are very rare, and gives you these huge smiles that could just melt your heart and make anything better.

She has really been the most amazing blessing in our lives. We may not have planned on her being born this early, but if we had to choose between a different kid and waiting, or having her, we would choose her every single time. It has taken a huge adjustment for both of us this year, but we have learned so much and we have been amazed at how much we love that little girl. And how quickly she has gotten us hooked on her. 

She's a total daddy's girl and loves him so much. I am so happy that they love each other. He constantly tells me how much he loves that little girl and it's so obvious how much she loves him. The minute he walks in the door from work, she gets so excited and runs to the stairs to meet him. She smiles her huge smile and shrieks in excitement. He always makes a huge deal of saying hello to her and snuggles her, gives her hugs and kisses, and he is the one who makes her laugh the hardest and the most, especially right after bath. I haven't seen anyone love someone as much as those two love each other and it just melts my heart every time. I am constantly realizing how lucky I am to have him and her in my life and am so happy with how everything has turned out. :)

We can't believe she's a year old and we are so excited to experience the rest of our lives with her. She makes our lives such a joy and brings so much light and happiness. We love you Kollyn!!! Our little Kooky girl!

And lastly, a picture of all the Bonner cousins together. It was hard to get everyone to sit still and focus on the camera, but this is the one that turned out the best. It was so fun to have them all together and see how they all interact. We're lucky to have such close families, both David and I, and it has really been a huge blessing for us both as we try to figure out this whole being a parent thing.

We have had a really fun month, between Thanksgiving, David's birthday, Kollyn's birthday, and hanging out with family and friends, it has been crazy but worth it. 

October 2014: Friends, Batman, and Corn Mazes (and so, so, so many pictures)

Just a warning, this is going to be mostly pictures. :) 

We babysit a little 4 month old boy everyday while my friend is in class. Kollyn, at first, would get really upset when I fed him or was holding him, but lately has gotten a lot better about being nice to him and not trying to tip him out of his swing. They smile and gabber at each other. 

Also, my child has been indoctrinated by her dad. She'll pick her Batgirl shirt and cape no matter what other clothes I've laid out for her. And she'll go up to any Batman poster in a store and touch it, if she can, and smile. 

This girl loves climbing up the stairs. She's lately taken a page out of her friend Wyatt's book and rolled from the stairs onto the upper couch in our house (we have stadium seating) and then rolled down to the other. She isn't afraid of things like that at all and loves climbing the stairs too. If I forget to put up the gate, she knows and is up the stairs before I turn around again.

Kollyn has started showing interest in other babies close to her age and usually when we go to Grandma Johnson's for Sunday dinner, she gets to spend time with her cousin Luke. The first time she wasn't too sure what to think about him, since he really wanted to hug her. She's warming up to him now and they seem to be getting along really well. 

She also liked playing with Rocco, David's cousin Alex's little boy. She crawled right up to him and they had a little baby staring contest for a while, then proceeded to play with their respective toys.

This little girl LOVES stuffed animals. Her current favorites are any Minnie Mouse she can get her hands on, a stuffed parrot, a stuffed otter, a stuffed Yoshi, and 2 stuffed teddy bears.She has to have one of them with her at all times. In bed, she has a penguin that use to belong to David and she snuggles it all the time and all night long. During the day it's one of her Minnies (She has 4), her parrot, otter, or Yoshi. Her latest addition is the teddy bears from Aunt Mariolina. She's so lucky to have such a thoughtful great-aunt. :) She always gets to pick one to take with her when we go places and she seems to travel much better when she has them.

The stuffed otter and parrot came from our adventure to the Living Planet Aquarium when they had their ZAP day. It was free to help raise awareness for an initiative on the ballots in Salt Lake County. We enjoyed being able to check it out. Would I pay the regular price? No, but it was awesome to check it out for free. Kollyn loved seeing the penguins, even if they weren't swimming around it was still fun to watch them ruffle their feathers and listen to them squawking at each other. We also saw some really big fish and there were a lot of jellyfish there too. It was a lot of fun for us to experience that kind of atmosphere with Kollyn. We thought about letting her touch some starfish, but we opted to wait until she is a little bit older. All in all, it was a really fun outing and we were really glad a friend of mine had told us about the free tickets.

David and I were able to go on a baby-free date a few weeks ago. It was the best night we've had in a long time. We put Kollyn to bed, my dear friend Janie and her sister came over to listen for her if she were to wake up (which didn't happen), and then we went out. We went mini-golfing at Trafalga, got cake bites from The Sweet Tooth Fairy (they won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network a couple times and their cupcakes and cake bites are AMAZING!), and some Mexican food at Taco Burrito. It was alright food, even if they did mess up our order a little, and the service was awesome. It was good to be able to get out of the house for a little while without Kollyn, even if we did spend most of our time thinking about her. We even played the arcade at Trafalga and won enough tickets to get her 2 new rubber ducks. Those are some of her favorite toys. She has 5 different rubber ducks now and she loves them all.

Church has become kind of a chore. She is so curious, wiggly, and loud that sitting through sacrament meeting is definitely not possible. She loves to walk around the halls, at first she had to hold our fingers and now she's walking all over the place by herself. She loves going up to the doors and watching the world outside. She seems to get concerned when other people can get through the doors but she can't, then she tries banging on the door but it doesn't work. David usually lets me go to Relief Society (if we're able to with church being in the middle of naptime) while he walks with her and we switch off Sunday School. Just a few more months and she can go to nursery! :)

Kollyn had a ton of fun at her first corn maze. We went to Hee Haw Farms in American Fork because they had a good deal on KSL and we wanted to take Kollyn to one so we figured it was the perfect time since it wasn't too hot or too cold. We invited my friend Christina to come with us. She's been my best friend since we were 5 and have been able to stay close friends since then. She got home from her mission back in February and is living in Salt Lake so we get to see each other quite a bit, which is nice for me.

Kollyn loved going through the maze in her stroller because the ground was bumpy. She thought it was so much fun, especially when David pushed her really fast and the bumps jostled her around. She laughed and giggled the whole time. She got to feed a goat with David, something she wasn't too sure how she felt about, ride in a hay wagon and a little train, and ride on a little tire swing made into an animal. We thought about playing in the corn box, but figured she'd spend most of the time trying to eat corn kernels so we'll maybe try that next year.

Kollyn loves her daddy more and more every day. And rightly so. They are so amazing together and I love watching them interact. She mostly giggles for him and even though she does giggle for other people, he gets the biggest ones. She lights up the minute he walks through the door from work and wants to spend all her time with him. She'll play with her toys while standing and holding onto his leg. She walks with him, sits while he reads her books, and snuggles with him at night much more than she does with me. Sometimes it makes me sad, but I love the bond they have and it makes me so happy at the same time. I hear other women talk about how uninvolved their husbands are in their children's lives and I wouldn't have that any other way. She is so lucky to have him as her dad. And it is so obvious that he loves her more than anyone else in this world. He tells me that even though she was born earlier than we expected, he wouldn't trade it for anything, because if we'd had a baby when we'd planned, it wouldn't have been Kollyn. And we can't imagine life without her.

We love going on walks and when we can, we love going with other people, especially Tricia and Wyatt. Last week we went with them on a walk down to the Sweet Tooth Fairy by University Mall. David gets a discount there through Vivint, which is slightly bad news,but mostly great news. :) It was a little bit of a walk, but we had fun chatting and walking with Kollyn. She walked for a while, but got tired and rode in the stroller. A couple days after this was when she decided she would walk full-time instead of just whenever she feels like it and now she cruises everywhere. She's still a little unstable and falls over, but she's awesome at getting back up and going along with the walking. We're so proud of her!

She had a lot of fun at Halloween. My mom found her costume at a garage sale and it fit her perfectly. She was the cutest little dragon ever! We were going to check out the trick or treating at the Provo Towne Center mall, but we remembered that one of the wards in our church building was doing a trunk or treat, and since our chapel is just around the corner from our house, we decided to do that instead of driving to the mall. Everyone loved her costume and she loved all the candy. One of the families gave her two suckers and she held tight to those as we walked around. She had a lot of fun walking around and basking in the attention of people. She loved the suckers. They were the first ones she's ever had, but she ate two of them and was covered in sticky sucker juice. It was a nightmare for us, but it was so much fun for her, and that's what matters.

I had to throw this one in there. She ate her first chocolate bar and LOVED it. She ate two of them and a Milky Way. We had a lot of fun seeing her react to the candy and while we didn't give her much, she seemed to enjoy it. So much so that she takes her little candy bucket off the couch and looks inside it for the candy that isn't there anymore. So I've started putting her snacks in her bucket so she can carry it around and eat her little puffs and yogurt melts out of it. She has fun doing that.

Sunday we went to my sister Melissa's house for cake and ice cream to celebrate my oldest niece's 13th birthday. Kollyn had fun playing with Parker, My brother-in-law's younger brother's youngest son, and his brother Landon. Parker is a few months older than Kollyn so they were playing in pretty similar ways. They both had a lot of fun playing with the stacking blocks and the balloons. Kollyn liked the cake and ice cream, which isn't surprising since both David and I like cake and David likes ice cream.

I've been working really hard getting blankets made for a boutique preview my friend and I are putting together featuring local crafters making things for babies and toddlers. I make baby and toddler blankets and car seat blankets (thanks to Angela for making one for Kollyn that kind of sparked this whole thing) and have been making a bunch to have as displays and to sell at the craft fair. It takes a big chunk of time and Kollyn has been so amazingly patient through it all. She has fun just playing peek-a-boo with me while I am ironing and helping me find all the loose strings on the floor. I love that she's content to play by herself and I try to make as much time for her as possible. She's so easy going and it is perfect for this.

 I had to share this sequence too. Yesterday while I was watching Oliver, Kollyn decided she just had to play in his car seat, so she spent almost 20 minutes going back and forth like this, she'd make it tilt up, then move along until it tipped over and she spilled out. She'd laugh and then go back the other way. It was really funny to watch. :)

Today was David's birthday. He's 24 now! To celebrate, yesterday we went to lunch at Tucano's. Kollyn had fried bananas, small cheese biscuits, bits of our meat, and anything else she wanted. She loved it! Last weekend we went paintballing with some of our friends for his birthday and Kollyn spent time with my sister and her family. Her little girls love Kollyn and fight over who got to play with her and feed her and put her down for her nap. I love that she has cousins that love her so much. We had a lot of fun paintballing too. David got a couple of really good welts and so did I, but it was a lot of fun. Then we went to lunch with some friends because Kollyn was still napping and we didn't want to wake her up. Then we did some shopping before meeting up with Karin and David for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. They took us out for David's birthday and it was a lot of fun. 

Tonight we went and tried a new place that we've heard so many good things about. It was Pizzeria 712 and it was really good and decently priced. Kollyn loved the hummus and pita bread that came before the meal and our waiter was amazing and kept bringing it for her. 

I bought David a bunch of Batman paraphernalia for his birthday (magnets, a mug, a thermos, and a vintage metal poster) and this morning I went to Hobby Lobby and got the stuff to make a little poster inspired by my amazing friend Tiffany. Tricia and Wyatt were here today so she helped me paint Kollyn's feet and try to make them into a heart shape. I feel like it turned out pretty well and he loved it, which was the most important. :)

Overall, life here has been good. Kollyn is 11 months, walking all over the place, says "Hi" "I got it" "Baby" and "Uh-Oh". She's so smart and learns things so quickly. I'm getting stressed as the boutique day draws closer, and I've had several orders for car seat blankets in the last week which has kept me plenty busy. This weekend we're going up to my parent's house for a birthday party for two of my nieces and David and I'm looking forward to it. It's crazy how fast the time has flown. Today I was looking at baby pictures of Kollyn and can't believe how big she is. I love watching her grow up and watching her learn new things. She's such a curious child, which sometimes is annoying, but I love seeing her discover things and hope that she always fosters that curiosity and love of learning.

David is loving his job, though he wishes the meetings were a bit shorter, and I'm loving the perks that come with it. :) I get 40% off orders from Snapfish, which is going to be perfect on our Christmas cards. ;)

Speaking of Christmas cards, we got our family pictures back, that we took in September, and I know many of you have already seen them on Facebook, but I wanted to put in a few of our favorites. :)