Things Kaya says....

Me: Kaya, don't pick your nose.
Kaya: Uh. (climbing off our bed) I'm going to go pick my nose in my bedroom.
Me: No! (trying to hide the fact that I am laughing) Don't pick your nose anywhere!

Excited to go swimming!

Yes, it has been FOREVER since I last updated the blog, I know. So, here's what is happening in our lives right now:

Chris graduated in April and spent endless hours looking for a job in Denver, to no avail. We lived there in 2006 and loved it, so we are still hoping that we might move there someday. He is currently working at a large potato processing plant as an engineer, and although it may sound boring, it really isn't. It has been a great job so far, he enjoys most of his work and the people he works with. It seems like a good company that values all of the employees, even the new ones fresh out of college. We feel very blessed to have such a great job and although we are not in the location we were hoping for, we are happy. The bonus of living in Rexburg still is that I now have the opportunity to go back to school, and Chris will be getting his MBA since they recently announced an MBA program through USU available at BYU-I. And his company agreed to pay for his MBA, woohoo! So no complaints here! We have been very fortunate and blessed, and we will enjoy living here, however long that may be.

Kaya is very talkative, just like I was at her age. :) She will be three in two months, and she is constantly using words and phrases that I wouldn't expect from her. She is always saying funny things. I have a hard time remembering a lot of the things she says, and although I try to write them down, there are so many that I just don't have time to record everything. These are some of the things I remember her saying recently:

"I love you mom, you are the best mom ever!"
"She is a great lady." (about some random person)
Inspecting and wiggling the lever on our new office chair: "How is that possible? That feels weird."
"One second dad, mom is talking to me."
"I don't like toilets keh-buzz they are stinky." (she can say "because", but gets confused and always ends up saying "keh-buzz")
"Ring around the rosies, a pocket full of fosies!"
"I don't like bees. Also, I don't like mosquitoes, either."
"That looks just like my teddy! Ooo, we should buy it! Is it too expensive? Does it cost three dollars?" (she always says that things cost "three dollars")
Bringing my wallet to me- "Here you go mom, here's your cash."

She has a great imagination, and I love listening to her playing in her room, talking to her toys and making up conversations. I have tried on several occasions to record her, but she always catches me and stops whatever she's doing. Little goober. I will catch her on camera one of these days!

She is very social, and willing to be friends with pretty much anyone. Random little girl at the park? Sure! People at the grocery store? Yep! She is constantly trying to talk to everyone around us, wherever we may be. Most people just ignore her, which she doesn't understand, and she will just keep trying to engage them in conversation until they are out of sight. Nothing makes her happier than someone willing to talk to her.

She LOVES to sing. And she is CONSTANTLY singing. Sometimes she makes up her own songs, and sometimes she sings songs like this:

And here are some recent pictures:

Resting on the back of the couch.

At the airshow, covering her eyes because the planes were loud. He he.

Ah! The planes are loud, mom!

Watching the planes with her dog Squibee in her arms. She has some great names for her stuffed animals. :)

Hugging her teddy, all ready for church

Just being cute!

Great hair day.

What she does when she is supposed to be sleeping.

Kaya doing her silly face.

Silly face 2.

Silly face 3. My favorite!

Silly face 4.

"Swimming" on her carpet.

Resting on the stool.

Hiking Table Rock

Chris and his friend Matt hiked Table Rock last weekend, and since it would be a shame not to document this extremely manly excursion, I am posting pictures for all to see. They are in no particular order, but I'll explain a few. There are a couple of Matt on the trail (since Chris was taking all of the pictures with his camera, most of them are of Matt) and I put these in so you could get an idea of exactly how steep the trail was. Chris said that they climbed straight up the mountainside and he felt like he was on an endless stairstepper machine. The views of the Tetons were amazing, and I think that despite the fact that he was unable to walk for the next couple of days, he was glad he went. You might be wondering why they are carrying 40lb backpacks when they are only going on a day hike? Yes, I asked the same question. I told Chris that he was going to seriously regret taking such an unnecessarily large pack, but he insisted that it was all important gear and they had to have it. After he returned from the hike he informed me that they only ended up using the camera, one water bottle, and a few snacks. Apparently they could have survived with one ten pound pack instead of 80 pounds between them. BUT.....the fact that they were manly enough to hike with those packs should not be dismissed, as Chris has continually reminded me. They weren't able to hike to the top because the snow became increasingly deep, and since everyone coming back down was wearing ice climbing gear, they decided not to risk the rest of the hike, which I am glad about. All in all, they pushed themselves a lot, there were spectacular views, and nobody got eaten by a bear. Success!

Kaya LOVES to smell flowers. She buries her entire face in them; I am excited for spring so we can go to the campus gardens and she can see all of the pretty flowers. (We had snow last week....spring starts when summer should be starting)
















I put her container of crackers on the chair so she could reach them better, and she immediately went to get her little red chair and placed it in this convenient spot for snacking; she loves that chair and carries it all over the house.










Drinking out of Grandpa's water bottle; an impressive feat since it is basically as big as her entire body. :)





Trying to get her hands on whatever she can. The dishwasher is so full of interesting things.



Cooking with Grandpa is the best!


Talking to Aunt Kimberly on the phone. She was sad when I finally had to take the phone away from her.


She really enjoyed going down the slide. Now, anytime she sees a slide, she says "Whoaaaaa", the sound she also makes when she goes on the slide.


At the park with Grandpa.





Looking cute in her little sweater.


She also enjoyed the little chair at Grandma and Grandpa's house.


She loves being outside, so even when she wasn't, she would lay by the sliding glass door and look outside.





Sitting on a container of pasta and reading a book.


She discovered that the container of pasta was just the right size for her to sit on.


Climbing our bed.


For some reason, every time she comes in our room, she runs over to the bookshelf and pulls off this book (it is the same one every time) and stands on it. I don't know why she does it, but it makes me laugh every time.


Crazy baby!


Yes, she is wearing baby bloomers on her head like a hat. She likes to put clothes on, although she has not yet figured out where each item goes. Thank you Cheryl for the cute dress. :)