Some of the things I love about Kiley!!

Almost 11 months ago, this beautiful little baby came to our home. I knew she was full of personality and boy was I right!! She has turned our home completely upside down and I have loved most every minute of it. So here are a few things I love about her!!

1. Kiley loves to eat!! She also loves to make a mess in the process. She is not so fond of the baby food anymore. But she loves to eat off our plates. Rice happens to be one thing we eat quite frequently. This is the day we decided she didn't get to eat rice by herself! That was one mistake we will wait a while to repeat.

2. Kiley loves to play with her dog!! Daisy isn't always a fan but she is always good to let Kiley pull on her ears and tail and fur. Daisy usually plays dead, probably hoping Kiley will get bored and go away. Kiley loves to sit on Daisy's bed, with or without Daisy being there. Oh and did you notice she's only wearing a diaper. That's right! Kiley loves to crawl away as fast as she can when we try to change her. And she does all this while giggling and making us laugh uncontrollably. It sometimes takes both of us to hold her down while we try to put her squirming legs and arms and body into pajamas.

3. Kiley loves to be outside. She loves the dirt and she loves to pick flowers. Oh but not the whole flower, just some of the petals. She has been caught multiple times, eating dirt and rocks and pulling petals off flowers. She also tries her hardest to crawl as fast as she can to the road. I don't know what the fascination is for kids and the road, but I'm not a fan!

4. Kiley is a good sleeper. We can put her just about anywhere and she will sleep. She loves her nap time. When we put her down in her crib, she grabs her binky, Minnie Mouse, and her blanket and curls right up. Same thing at night. However, at night, she likes to crawl into the corner of her crib so she is smashed up against the railing and foot board. You read it right. She turns around in her crib and smashes her head against the foot board. 

5. Kiley loves to stand and pull everything out of her toy box. She loves to pull everything out of anything. The other day at church, she spent Sunday School pulling the toys and diapers out of one member's diaper bag. She was so proud of herself for emptying it.

 6. Kiley loves laundry! She spent an entire afternoon playing in her laundry basket. She only got stuck once or twice but had so much fun in the process. She spends most laundry days throwing the unfolded clothes from one pile to another pile just out of my reach. She also loves to take the laundry that has been folded and throw it all over the room and then crawl away laughing. 

7. I love her big toothy grin when she laughs. Yes! She is laughing and smiling big for this picture. That's just how she is. I also love that she loves to hang out with her cousins. I say hang out instead of play because she hangs out and watches them while they play. And of course while she watches, she smiles her big grin and laughs at them. 

8. Kiley loves her great-grandparents!! Kiley loves spending time with all of her greats! Kiley has 7 of her 8 great grandparents still living. She has met and knows each one of them. She loves when she gets to see them, even though its not as often as we'd like. In March, we went to visit the Palmer greats!! She got to go to the fields and see their cows and the baby calves. She absolutely loved being there and seeing them. The cows are very tame and even let her pet their babies. Oh how she loved that!! 

Petting the calves

Great Grandpa Palmer (March 2011)

Great Grandma Palmer(March 2011)

Great Grandma Latteier (November 2010)

Great Grandpa and Grandma Bishoff (April 2011)

Great Grandpa Ford (May 2011)

Great Grandma Ford and cousin Lucy (Dec. 2010)

 9. Kiley loves to give hugs and kisses and just cuddle with everyone. She has been so cuddly the last few weeks and I can't get enough of it. Chad loved when Kiley was a newborn and would cuddle up so close to him and fall asleep on his chest. She grew out of that and wouldn't hold still long enough to put her head on your shoulder. Well, she's grown back into it and is the cuddliest little thing. The best part is that its not just with us. She cuddles with anyone who holds her which makes them just as happy. 

She also loves to hug kids. A couple weeks ago at church, a little girl (probably 16 months old) came to play with Kiley. Kiley got so excited, she threw her arms around the girls neck and bounced with excitement. The poor girl just looked at us trying to figure out what was going on. It was adorable.

10. Kiley is so full of energy. She lately has been climbing on and in everything. Her favorite is her car seat. She will climb in it and then tip herself over. She falls out and sometimes on her head in the process but just giggles the whole time (probably because she knows she's not supposed to.)  

11. And last but not least! We just love Kiley because of who she is. She is a little girl so full of energy who loves life. The best part about her is that she is OURS!! 

The Zoo!!

So I know it's been a while since I last posted but life has been crazy. At the beginning of the month, Kiley and I spent a week in Salt Lake. I was working with my sister, Heather, on a beautiful home and Kiley was spending time with Grandma Mar. She had so much fun. Well, my brother-in-law, Riley, and nephew, Asher, came to Utah while 2 of my sisters (Heather and Lindsey) headed to Denmark. Riley invited us to go to the zoo with he and Asher on Friday so we did. It was really fun!! The following are pictures from the day!

Kiley and Asher getting ready to go!

The zoo was doing a dinosaur exhibit through the summer. Kiley was watching one of the dinosaurs spit water at the kids. 

Riley is being a prairie dog. My mom made him do it.

Kiley was starting to get tired. But she liked watching the monkeys.

She was watching the monkey run around it's habitat

Cousins watching the elephants

Kiley looking for the nearest escape route

Kiley found a rock. 

Riley trying to see if he weighs as much as an elephant poops. Nope! He weighs as much as a baby rhino though.

Hanging with the giraffes 

Lickin' a pole! Glad it wasn't winter that day! Just imagine the pain.

Admiring the Giraffe licking the pole.

Riding the tigers

Didn't want to get too close.

Julia attacking the tiger

Lazy tigers

I loved this sign.

 The zoo is just down the street from my grandparents house. So after leaving the zoo, we headed up for a quick visit. 

Great Grandpa and Kiley

 Before we headed back to Cedar City at the end of our week, Kiley got some pictures with her Grandma and Grandpa Latteier. She was a little distracted by the dogs that she loves so much!

Easter Eggs and Tulips

The Saturday before Easter we had lots of fun. Chad's cousin, Brandon, got married that day. We were invited to their luncheon at Thanksgiving Point which also was the same time as the Tulip Festival. It was awesome! I had only been to Thanksgiving Point one other time and that was in the winter, I believe. First off, the food was absolutely wonderful!!! After the food, Chad's cousins, Maddie and Lauren, created an Easter Egg Hunt for all the kiddos. So we took Kiley down and she thought it was great.

After the Easter Egg hunt, we took some time to have some family pictures with the beautiful tulips. The tulips were absolutely beautiful. Kiley thought it was fun to pull the petals off the pansies. Don't worry, she only got a hold of one before we put an end to that. She also loved to crawl down the hill and only face planted it once or twice. And I won't lie, it was pretty funny.

Kiley and her uncle John

 After the luncheon, we went to help Syd and Preston pack up and get ready to leave for North Carolina. (They, along with Scott and Brittany, are going to be selling alarm systems this summer. I'm a little jealous of their adventure.) Then it was off to the reception. The reception was in this cool little place in Provo. They had a chocolate fountain and an ice cream bar. They also had some of their friends (I'm only guessing) playing Jazz music. Let's just say this made for some very entertaining dance time.

Kiley with her Great Grandpa Bishoff

Kiley with her Grandpa Bishoff

Kiley with her Aunt Syd, and Uncle Preston

 The last part of the trip was getting to play with her cousin Asher. She spent a lot of time playing with him and following him around. They loved standing at the back window, looking out at the dogs and watching them run around the yard.(Maybe my sister Lindsey will post her pictures from that occasion soon. And then I'll share.) It's so fun to see them together and to see how much they have grown. 

We sure love getting to spend so much time with our families. We were sad to not be in Moab for the great Jeep Safari weekend. We've been looking forward to it since last April. It was nice that Lindsey, Riley and Asher were in town to make up for it though!! We are grateful for Easter and the chance that it gives us to reflect on Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for us!! How blessed we are to know of this truth!!

(If you would like to see more pictures from the Tulip festival-go check out my sis-in-law's blog. I posted a link to it below.)