"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more." - Emma

Mikayla's Greatest Accomplishment!

For over a month now, Mikayla has been working with half of the determination needed to be fully potty trained. She finally filled in her potty chart!! As a present for getting all the stickers, she got this beautiful Cinderella dress. She loves it so much and is currently getting ready for the ball. She is painting her toenails and putting more make-up on. I think that Mikayla is almost ready to buy her own ticket for the potty train! CHOO-CHOO!!

"I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She really looked almost wild.'' - Pride and Prejudice

Mikayla spent the night last night with her Grandmother, Granddad and her five year-old cousin, Noelle. She came home with some play make-up. After giving me a much-needed make-over (and charging me 20 dollars for it!), Mikayla put the beautiful make-up on herself. Then, after listening to her beg and plead for over 20 minutes, I let her put the make-up on Gwennie-bean. Gwennie loved the attention from her sister. Gwenyth loves any attention that Mikayla gives her and Mikayla is usually very willing to play with her baby sister. She was thrilled when I finally told her that she could give Gwennie a make-over.

"I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared" - Jane Austen

I made my first of many mistakes yesterday when I told Mikayla to go upstairs and get herself dressed. She was gone for a long, long time. She came downstairs after a while. She didn't have any clothes on. She said, "mommy, I need help and I made a mess." I thought, "ACK!! What does that mean?" I said, "Go clean it up and I will be there in a minute." When I arrived in her bedroom, camera in hand, here is what I saw....

Baby powder...in the shape of an M.

M is for Mess

M is for Mikayla

M is for Mommy's big Mistake!!

And here is Gwenyth...innocently looking on. Innocent? Or thinking to herself, "Wow Mikayla, that was a good one. I'll have to remember that."

We Love You Daddy!!

I recently interviewed Mikayla on the subject of her daddy. Enjoy!

What is your daddy's name? - Dosh

Where does daddy go during the day? - Work. Yes, work...His go to work.

Do you know where daddy works? - With his friends.

How does daddy get to work? - With my car

What does daddy do at work? - Eat with tables, play at work with his friends

I want to go to work with daddy!!

Does daddy come home? - Yes, lets sing "Daddy comes home" Daddy comes home...daddy comes home...daddy comes home....(I don't know that song)

What does daddy do when he comes home? - His drives home and spends the night with us

Does daddy play with you? - Yes

What games does he play? - my toys and tickles me all the times

Does daddy put you to bed? - yes

What does he do? - read "Night Night Book," and my go to sleep

Do love daddy? - Yes

How much - This big!!!!

"Indeed, you should take care of yourself as well as of your friend" - Emma

We all went to the doctor yesterday for Gwennie-bean's 9 month check up. She is doing great. She weighs 15 pounds and is 26 inches long. The first thing the doctor did was poke Gwenyth’s toe to check her iron. Mikayla was so mad that the nurse hurt her sister. She said to the nurse, “Stop!! Don’t hurt my Gwennie!” So, the nurse wrapped a bandaid around Gwenyth’s toe and the appointment proceeded as usual. It was towards the end of the appointment that things became interesting. Both Gwenyth and Mikayla had to have a flu shot. Gwenyth had hers first and cried for only a few minutes. Then, it was Mikayla’s turn. We put her up on the table and I had warned her that she was going to have to have a shot, but she wailed and cried so loud and so hard that I thought she was going to hurt herself. I placed her down on the floor, sobbing and wailing in deep anguish and pain. I started to put Gwennie’s socks on and amidst her despair and through her own tears, Mikayla said, “Mommy, watch out! They hurt her toe, so be so careful!” Even though she was in dreadful pain and torture, she was watching out for her Gwennie. I love my Mikayla. She has so much compassion and love in her little heart, especially for her baby sister.

I asked Mikayla to draw some dinosaurs for me. I so surprised that they actually looked like dinosaurs! Maybe its just my biased mommy eyes that can see the dinosaurs. I love it though. I almost hung the Magna-Doodle on the wall!

"why am I thus singled from my family, and blessed above them all!" - Pride and Prejudice

I don't know about everyone else, but I truly enjoyed this last General Conference. My favorite moment was when Mikayla was watching with us on Sunday morning. President Hinckley opened the session and Mikayla's eyes opened wide and she said, "Mommy! There's Jesus!" I said, "Oh, honey, that isn't Jesus. That's President Hinckley. He's our Prophet." And she was quiet until he sat down and she said, "Well, he knows Jesus. They are friends." I don't know if some wise nursery leader told her about the prophet, or if her little spirit sensed his closeness to the Lord, but she knew of President Hinckley's goodness and I love that about Mikayla. I learned a lot from Conference, but not as much as I learned from Mikayla. Its the simple reminders that reaffirm my testimony. Just had to share it!! Love you all!

This is Mikayla doing what she thinks is a cartwheel. She's wearing my socks.

Look at those cheeks! They're almost edible!!

Mikayla and Gwenyth are getting to be good friends. The love to snuggle and give each other kisses.

Friends. Mikayla is letting Gwenyth smack her on the side of her head in this picture.

Pretty Girl

Cutie! Cutie!

"To know that what I have to relate will give such pleasure to all my dear family! how shall I bear so much happiness!'' - Pride and Prejudice

Mikayla has become quite the little conversationalist lately. I, of course, can understand her completely. But for those of you who don't have the pleasure of her daily company and ramblings, I have provided a "Dictionary According to Mikayla. Volume 1"

First of all though, here is how Mikayla sings the ABC's (sing to the tune of the ABC's as you read it. It makes more sense.)
a b c d e f d ace i day k avenue p q r yes kee u b w x y and b now my know my abcs abcdefd next time won't you sing wiff me!!!

Ay-ee-woll - Arial from the Little Mermaid.

Beaver - Teagan - I asked Mikayla what the name of her brand new baby cousin is, and she thought for a minute and then answered, "Beaver" Mikayla and baby Beaver

Bedda - Bella - Her cousin

Bumpy - Lumpy from the New Winnie the Pooh movie.
Crammon - Cameron - one of her friends that comes over to play
Cramra – Camera - usually followed by an enthusiastic "CHEESE!!"

Datangan- Dartanion - our old dog
Fridger- Combination of Fridge and Freezer. She is very efficient.
Ghetti - you guessed it - Spaghetti
Grammar - Grandmother - Mikayla affectionately referrs to Grandmother as Grammar
Hangaberger - Hamburger - A favorite around our house.
Kayda - Mikayla - This is how she says her name
Light Bulbs - Meat Balls - The other days Mikayla asked for "Ghetti and Light Bulbs" for lunch. Here is the end result...

Then, I told her to wash her hands. She washed JUST her hands

Make it so Pretty- This is what Mikayla says when she is talking about Mommy fixing her hair. Sometimes, its good thing, "mommy, please make it so pretty." Sometimes, its followed by kicking, screaming and ratty hair for the rest of the day.

Night Night Book- "Goodnight Moon" - One of the lines from the book reads, "And two little kittens and a pair of mittens." Mikayla likes to finish the lines, so the other night, it went like this, Me-- "Two little"... Her -- "Kittens" Me-- "and a pair of"... Her "Underpants. HA HA" Ogre- Yogurt
Papa- Grandpa
Schomat - (Skuh-mit) - Stomach - as in, "My Schomat hurts"
Seat Belt - A belt - the kind that holds one's pants up
See-o-woll - Cereal - It makes sense to me
TB - TV - though TB commonly referrs to a less than desirable illness, TB in our house actually means, TV
Teppa - Pizza - Why? I don't know
Toof-tafe - Tooth Paste - of course
Wooze - Either Use or Lose - Take it all in context, if you don't know, always assume "Lose" - Let's face it, she's three and she probably lost something.

She's almost crawling! About two seconds after this pose, she falls flat on her face. She really wanted that piece of garbage though, I guess.

``I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!' - Pride and Prejudice

Uh, What did you say?

The inner-thoughts of Mikayla's mind

The other day, Mikayla was running around the living room like a crazy person. Josh had taken his cello out the day before and left the soft storage case on the floor. Mikayla tripped over the storage case and instead of the usual cry of distress at falling down, I heard a quiet giggle come from her. When I asked what was so funny, she said, "I fell down on the cello clothes."

Mikayla's grandma called the other day to talk to Mikayla. Mikayla was busy and refused to talk to her grandma. I said, "Mom, I'll call you back in a few minutes." I then had a stern talk with Mikayla and sent her to the naughty step to think about how much she hurt her Grandma's feelings by not wantint to talk to her. After a few minutes, Mikayla said, "I think I'm ready to talk to Grandma now." I called Grandma back and put Mikayla on the phone. With tears running down her face and sobs in her voice, she told Grandma, "Mommy spanked me lots of times and made me sit on the naughty step all day."

Mikayla locked the bathroom door and closed it from the outside. I asked her if she could unlock it. After trying to crawl under the door she said, "Its stuck. I really locked it!"

Mikayla amazes me with the things that she knows. Out of the blue yesterday she said, "Mommy, Aunt Katie is going to have a boy baby, like Beck."

We went to visit Josh's parents before the bedtime the other night. Granddad said, "Mikayla, can I tell you a bedtime story." Mikayla said, "No, I'll tell you one. Once upon a time, there was a plano (piano). The plano, said, 'plink plink plunk plong, bing, bum, bong, boom.' and it went to sleep. The end." It was all very deep and inspirational.

And finally, Mikayla stole my diet Coke and carried it across the room. She brought me a sippy cup and a baby toy and a diaper and she said, "I want your Diet Coke, so today, you have to be the baby and I'll be the mommy and drink you Diet Coke, Ok?"

Gwenyth is getting SO close to crawling. Its exciting, and scary. She's all over the place, rolling and scooting on her head. Yes, her head. She's rubbing a new bald spot on the back of her head from all of her head scooting.

We love you all. We are having a great time here in Utah. We are all looking forward to Halloween and the other holidays coming up. We love you all!

"Oh! why is not every body as happy?" - Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)

Gwenyth's new favorite thing to do is scoot away from me while I try to change her diaper. She can't crawl yet, but she arches her back and scoots by pushing her legs. I say "You get back here!" and pull her legs and she cracks up. She is quit the little comedian!