Because of my little sister.....

I'm BAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKK!

Whoo!  How is 6 months for a Hiatus?

I have gotten many comments from loving friends and family who have been missing the blog updates.  The fact is I have been meaning to blog for forever, but once you stop, the idea of playing catch up becomes more and more overwhelming.   My guilty conscience will creep in every now and again whenever I think about how this blog is our sole family record/scrapbook/personal journal  but then I think about how much has happened and how much I would have to write and the task seems so daunting and I never get around to it.  

I am still working from home as a sale executive for Groopdealz which has turned into a full time job, so I stare at a computer enough hours a day for my job, that blogging has lost a lot of appeal.  So why now?

 Well my little sis is currently in the MTC training to be a missionary.  She is a missionary for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She was called to serve in the land of Roseville CA!  I could not be more proud of her!  So my blog will serve as my letters to her while she is out preaching the word. 

Let me provide a brief synopsis of what we have been up to for the last 6 months. 

We spent the summer in Utah and Idaho hanging out with family and living out of suitcases all summer long as Chris trained for his new job.  

We bought a house! Yep we are proud home owners now.  Wheee!  After we bought the house we packed up what little stuff we still had and shipped it all to Florida to move into our new house.  

Once we arrived in our new home, we did lots of shopping!   We basically had zero furniture so we spent the first week furniture shopping,  then we also had to do some car shopping, because about a day after we got to Florida Chris totaled our car, in an accident.  He came out fine, luckily, but our car was dead.   I hate car shopping!!  The whole ordeal was pretty stressful and we spent more money in that week than we probably have the entire 6 years we have been  married. 

After that I kept busy transforming our house into a home and have loved decorating, hanging pictures and making it ours!  

We got callings in our ward. Chris is in the Young Mens, and I am in the nursery.  Ayla is also in nursery so we get to spend the entire 3 hours of church together every week.   Good thing cause I sure don't get to spend enough time with her the rest of the week.  Only every single second of her wakeful life.  Haha.  But honestly,  I love all the little kids in there and I really like the other nursery leaders, we are able to visit and I am grateful for at least that little bit of adult interaction.

Since we have moved here we have flown back and spent just about as much time back west as we have here in Florida.  We were able to go back to Utah for Chris's annual family vacation in Park City in October.  Ayla and I stayed and went to Idaho for a couple weeks afterward while Chis traveled for work and then met up in Utah again for Halloween (ayla was an adorable little Owl) 

and then we were able to attend Chris's littlest sister Danielle's wedding! She looked gorgeous and the whole day was just about perfect in every way!  

Then we flew back to Florida for about two weeks before we jumped on a plane again and flew back west again to Idaho, this trip involved attending the temple for my little sis to get her endowments taken out, this was the first time that my entire immediate family was able to be in the temple together.  It was really special! We celebrated Thanksgiving, and then my little bro Chandler got married to his beautiful new wife Tabitha.  It was an event filled week. 

So you can all thank my darling little sister for going on a mission and giving me the final push I needed to get blogging again.  Please keep her in your prayers as she is out preaching the word of  God.  

After Thanksgiving and attending the second wedding in the month of November we flew back to Florida for a few weeks (almost 3 this time) before we flew back west to spend Christmas in Utah.  We loved having a white Christmas and being  surrounded by family, making sugar cookies, decorating stocking, singing Christmas carols (kareoke style), and stuffing our bellies to the brim!  

The day after Christmas, Chris had to travel on business, so Ayla and I headed up to Idaho to spend the new year with my family and help my little sis shop, pack and prepare to go on her mission.  For Christmas this year my family decided instead of buying gifts for each other we would give gifts of the heart.  We each wrote each member of our family special letters from the heart expressing love, admiration, and fond childhood memories.   It was like getting a big warm fuzzy!  And I will treasure these letters always.  We spent  tons of time together as a family, every night staying up late playing and talking.  I didn't go to bed before 3am a single night we were there.  No Joke!  3am people!    

Coming back to Florida has been a big adjustment this time.  We have been back in Florida for almost two weeks now and we are still struggling to get back into a regular routine and normal bedtimes.  I have been in a bit of a funk to be honest,  feeling a little sad, depressed, and missing my mom.  It hasn't helped that Ayla has become even more headstrong insisting on being an active, defiant, independent toddler and the terrible twos are already in full swing in this house.  Lord please help me! 

Ayla is saying lots of new words:

Here is her vocabulary list so far: 

Walk

Zui (Zuri our dog)

Chair

Cup

This

book

doggie

cow

duck

Gir (giraffe)

Tang (tangled)

Bray (Brave)

Aiaia (Arial)

Show (as in movie)

car

truck

No

Oooooo (as in uh oh)

Wawa (water)

Baba (bottle)

Baby

side (outside)

stop

candy

cookie

draw (when she wants to color)

She can also do a bunch of animal sounds and loves to say the corresponding sound that the animal makes as she point to them in her books, puzzles, and games/toys.

moo (cow)

Neigh (Horse)

Baa (sheep and goat)

Ba Ba Ba (chicken/rooster)

ssssss (snake)

girbegirbegirbe (bird)

Kaissssss (Tiger,bobcat,jaguar)

She can also say a few names: Mommy Daddy, Papa (grandpa), Camie, Chandler, Chalala (Chelacie) Jer (Jared), Char (Archer, Grandpa's Dog) Ta (taco, grandma's dog), Caden, Bila (Bailey, Camie's dog)

We have also found out the Bila, also means, banana and Thumbelina(another favorite show). 

I am sure there are more but that is all I can think of at the moment.