Happy First Birthday!

The Birthday Girl!


Its hard to believe that she went from this:

to this:....in just 365 days.

Nana gave her a fun lion toy!

She had alot of fun helping Dad put it together. The first of many toys that will be needing assembly, I am sure.

She loves to push it into the wall, or in this case, the vacuum cleaner. When the lion hits something he makes music and she loves that!

Here was her first birthday cake!

And here is Kanyon trying to figure out why we are all singing to her. And, she can't wait to dig in to her first cupcake!

Kanyon, Logan, & Granny:

She had no problem ripping the wrapping paper once she got the hang of it:

And Aunt Kate got her some shoes...Finally!!

I really didn't take as many pictures as I should have...I'll let that be a lesson to me for next year. But, it turned out to be a great first birthday party for Kanyon. Thank you to all her friends and family that came to share this fun day! xxoo

Swing Swing Swing

Yes, Kanyon has no fear and liked the swings at the park today.

Happy 1st Easter, Kanyon!

Even though Jake had to work all day Easter Sunday, we made the best of it and made it a fun day for Kanyon. Nana (my mom) is out here visiting from NY, so it was bound to be a great day! First thing in the morning we got dressed up and went to Katie's house for a wonderful breakfast. Kanyon loves playing with her cousins...and their new Easter toys.

Logan, Kanyon, & Mason

I found the Bunny.

When Jake got home from work we let Kanyon dig through her basket and see what she could find. I think there were even a couple things in there for her to share with her Dad.

Then to finish the day off, we grilled some steaks up on the grill and watched a movie.

We hope all of you had a great Easter.

The Hunt

Kanyon participated in her first Easter Egg hunt. I think she had a great time! She had so much fun collecting the eggs. Getting her to drop them in her basket required a little "help", but it was a great first experience for her.

Mason & Logan came and had some fun too.

She seriously picked up 2 eggs with one hand....How does an 11 month old do that??

It might look like she is being nice and dropping an egg in her basket...but I guarantee you that she was trying to pull one out instead.

Almost a Toddler

Before we left for Mexico, Kanyon was just BARELY starting to crawl. She would only take one or two "steps" and she'd give up. Now its a different story. I can barely get her to sit still long enough to change her diaper. We fight about this alot and now she thinks its a game everytime I grab her leg to pull her back to me before I have the diaper on. I try not to laugh when she is squealing out of pure delight, but its hard to be mad at a cute face like that! I can already tell I'm not going to be a good discipliner. And the scary thing is that Jake is even weaker when it comes to Kanyon! At first, I was worried for Kanyon, coming to parents like us...but I take that all back. Now I am scared for us having a daughter like Kanyon! She is very strong willed and will not stop at anything until she gets what she wants. That usually means my cell phone or the TV remote. She even fake cries! No tears at all, just alot of noise. Ugh..who taught her that? And I can't keep her off the stairs. She can go up just fine...but going down isn't so graceful. We still need to work on that. I guess I should invest in a couple baby gates for the stairs...or better yet, maybe a cage. (Just kidding!)

La vida loca en Mexico

Cancun, Mexico- I don't think we ever would have come back if Kanyon wasn't here waiting for us. Mexico was sooo awesome! We kept very busy and had so much fun. We went with 4 other couples, all friends of ours. All the husbands graduated high school together. Jake got his first experience being south of the border- complete with crazy drivers, coconut popsicles, and many opportunities for adventure. I am very excited that he had such a great time. Now maybe I can talk him into heading a little further south into Guatemala. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

We stayed at the Westin Resort & Spa. The hotel was perfect - except for at the time of check in, when they didn't have any reservation for us in their system! (Thanks Orbitz) This is a picture of the view we had from our room. I am sure you can imagine how hard it would be to come home after a week of waking up to this. I now sit here, looking out to snow and looking at my peeling skin from being sunburned. Its sad to think so much has changed in less than a week!

As a group, we made ourselves a busy little itinerary. We wanted to make sure that we got everything done that we wanted to. Monday was our "free" day. We spent it on the beach and exploring downtown Cancun. We had a blast at Mercado 28 bartering with all the locals. They love it when someone comes in speaking Spanish. It was fun to be able to use my Spanish again, and brush up on it. I forget how much I love that language and how it helps me to get cheap silver jewelry.

On Tuesday we headed out to see some Mayan ruins at a place called Chichen-Itza. We hired a private driver to take the 10 of us on our 1.5 hr ride out there. I wouldn't go back and do it any other way. We had a fun driver and even sang some kareoke through the "tour guide" speakers in the van using his "tour guide" microphone.

Then on Wednesday the girls all went to the spa for facials & massages. It was heavenly. Then we laid out on the beach until the guys got back. They rented a fishing boat and did some deep sea fishing. Unfortunately, it wasn't extremely successful, and they all got really sea sick. Jake said he'd do it again, but none of the other guys did. Jake caught the biggest fish of the trip- but I think only 2 fish were caught the entire 8 hr trip. This fish is called an Amber Jack.

On Thursday, we took a bus down to Playa del Carmen to catch a ferry over to the island of Cozumel. It was here that we had our SCUBA lessons and dive. I'll be honest, I didn't make it on the dive to the reef...but either did 3 others in our group. There is something a little too claustrophobic about being that far underwater. Jake did it and took an underwater camera with him. He says that it was beautiful. Lots of fish- even sting rays & barracuda. We are hoping some of the pictures turn out- but from what I hear, I don't have very high hopes.

On Friday, we hired another driver to take us to Tulum to see some more ruins. Those were really cool cause they are built right on the rocky coastline. After we were done at Tulum, we drove up to a place called Akumal and some of us did some snorkeling there. Here there were big sea turtles to be seen...and pretty close to you! Jake actually got in trouble for trying to chase one. Leave it to him to be the one to do that.

The rest of the trip was not planned out. We spent alot of time at the beach and playing in the water. We really had a great trip and can't wait to plan another one. If any of you are thinking about going to Mexico...don't think twice, just go! You won't regret it!

Trying to Keep Up

I know you are all probably sick of me saying that Kanyon is growing too fast, but its true. Here are just a few pics to prove it.

(I just love her expression in this picture. I think she's had enough of the camera.)

********************************************************************************

On Saturday night we went to The Roof with our friends Peggy & Kalli. It has almost turned into a tradition to go as our Christmas dinner together. You can blame Kalli for making us eat our Christmas dinner in February. Tell her she needs to come visit more often! We always have so much fun when we get to hang out! On this night we had bellies full of wonderful food and we were so happy to be spending time together.

And the best part about it.. I got to wear my green shoes!!