.guess who's baaaack and happy eleven months.

OK, our apologies for the past month and so many days.  No new pictures or updates.  Soooo...lots of things happened in the past month.  Kaiya turned ELEVEN months!!!  She's going to be the big 0-1 in 3 weeks!!!  Excuse me?  Not only that, but she's determined to walk before her first birthday.  She takes a bunch of steps here and there, but she still ends with a fall.  This girl is one tough cookie...she can fall, get right up and charge at it again.  She has absolutely no fear and thinks it's funny when she falls sometimes.  This could be partly because whenever she falls we laugh at her, so she doesn't get scared....we figured this out early on.  If we made a shocked expression or something whenever she would fall, she would get startled and cry.  So now, if she cries when she falls, we know that it hurt a little (or a lot, I guess).

So besides walking, Kaiya has been getting into all sorts of mischief.  We bought her some Color Wonder coloring books, which she would rather suck on the markers instead of scribble on paper.  She also finally accomplished her goal of stealing a sip of apple juice from Caleb's sippy cup.  She got a new big girl carseat, but still can't face forward until she turns 1.  And Kaytin let her borrow her baby doll to suck on her feet.  haha.  We eventually gave in and bought Kaiya her own babydoll, which she likes to refer to as "Babu".  I'll try and take a picture of them together and post soon.

Kaiya likes to wake up pretty early, and mommy has found a way to catch a little more zzz's.  Every night before bed, I put out a snack cup of Cheerios and her sippy cup with water.  And every morning, without fail, Kaiya wakes up and goes straight to her Cheerios and water.  I'm not sure if this I'm starting a bad habit, or what, but she seems to be a happy baby and she LOVES Cheerios, and she still eats her breakfast, lunch, dinner and multiple snacks in between.  So I've come to the conclusion that it's fine.  :)  This is Kaiya with her sippy cup, it's a Tilty Cup and is supposed to help her transition into a regular cup quicker.  Lately, she's figured out that she can drink without holding onto the cup.  She is SILLY!!

Speaking of silly...these were taken within the span of a couple minutes.  This is how it is everyday.  She makes faces at everyone.  Even to herself when she's looking in the mirror.  She makes faces to people in the store, which in turn they'll tell her Hi.  She has more friends than mommy, I think.  :)

And finally...she turned eleven months.  And in preparation for her big First Birthday Party, we took some photos to include on her invitation.  Here's some of the shots we got of her.

And of course, with her 11 month sticker on...

Things that Kaiya does at 11 months:

• Walks (she's getting better and better, she walked across half the living room the other day)
• Talks (no is definitely her favorite word, but she also says..in her own way...mama/mommy, dada, papa, thank you, hi, bye, baby, kaytin, wow, and boo)
• Gives kisses...lots of them
• Claps...at everything
• Dances...whenever she hears music
• Signs "please"
• Eats all kinds of food, but her favorites are Gogurt, bananas, rice, string cheese, Cheerios, Veggie Sticks, Blueberries, and waffles...and frozen yogurt
• Is cutting FOUR more teeth (two on top, two on bottom)
• Blows bubbles in the pool, and tries to dunk her face
• Recognizes items/people by name
• and much much more.....

I will try to do a better job at uploading pictures and videos.  I know I've said this before, but I get distracted.  I have some videos on my phone, so that will most likely be my next post.  However, everytime I try to catch her walking, she decides to crawl.  Go figure.

.eight months old.

Kaiya turned 8 months old on May 14!!!  It's been so fun to watch her grow the past 8 months, we can only imagine what it'll be like to continue to see her grow.  Every night, when she sleeps, we both look at her and can't believe how big she is getting.  You can see more and more of her personality everyday...while some minute she's doing the silliest things, the next she's crying for mommy.  Speaking of crying for mommy...have I mentioned that she's been saying "mamamamam".  Right...I know she's not really saying mama...but when she's crying and looking around for me and saying it, I can imagine she's calling me, right?

Anyway, we spent the morning at the beach since Kaiya LOVES it there.  She loves the sun, the sand, and the sea!  She was all laughs when daddy was helping her "swim".  Looks like someone has to take swimming lessons soon!  Maybe mommy should too!  haha.

Here's Kaiya just waking up from a power nap during the car ride over, which takes about 10-15 minutes.

kaiya+daddy

kaiya+mommy

The tide was really low when we first got there, so we decided to just play on the sand for a while.

Then daddy buried Kaiya in the sand...

...she didn't seem to mind.

And of course, she passed out on the ride home and slept in her carseat for a while after we got home.

When she woke up, she had an early bath and we headed over to Grandma Barbara and Papa Harry's for dinner.  And since we didn't take her sticker pictures yet, we took them over there.  Let me tell you, these pictures are getting harder and harder to take...especially since she's mobile.  So excuse the blurriness, it's because she WON'T. KEEP. STILL.  Happy 8 Month Birthday Baby!!!

.kaiya meets new mexico.

Our first day in New Mexico had to involve a trip to Chili Works, which is a little burrito shop that serves up some yummy breakfast burritos.  So, little miss Kaiya got all bundled up and took the quick trip up the hill to Los Alamos (Daddy is actually from White Rock).  Oh how we miss those breakfast burritos (although by the end of the trip, we're kind of convinced that Knapp's Wraps actually has the better breakfast burritos!).  Daddy says he still prefers the chili of Chili Works, though, because the green is clear your sinuses hot!!  We also got one for Grandpa Dave and took a quick tour of his new office and met a couple of his co-workers.  And outside of his office building there was some old snow, we couldn't play in it or anything, but it was the first time Kaiya got to see some snow.  

Kaiya's stayed pretty much on Hawaii time the whole time we were in New Mexico, so she would wake up around 8 or 9.  But in Hawaii, it was really 4 or 5am.  So she would be up for a bit, then want to take a nap again.  Her first nap of the day was joined by Grandma Barb's dog, Sandy. 

Uncle Tom, Aunt Viv, Cousins Lindsey and Katie, along with their dogs Maggie and Daisy drove in from Colorado for Easter Weekend...and Aunt Martha drove in from Albuquerque for the weekend as well.  It was a full house of Yarnell fun.  After Kaiya's first nap, her and daddy got all dressed up for the cold, eventhough it was quite warm outside.  They got all bundled up to watch Uncle Tom and Lindsey use the chainsaw to chop up some firewood for the fireplace.

Grandma Barb had a "Meet Kaiya" gathering at her house later that day.  Although Kaiya was a little picky on who could and who couldn't carry her, everyone enjoyed FINALLY meeting her.  She met a LOT of people (and dogs).   She met quite a few of the New Mexico "family," a lot of them who also came out for mommy and daddy's wedding almost two years ago.  It was a beautiful day...apparently the first nice, sunny weekend day in quite some time!  She showed off how she gets around (scooting/crawling) and how strong her legs were getting.

She had some quality time with Grandma Barb.

And got to hang out with Grandpa Dave, too.  He showed her Grandma Barb's windchime, which she loved the noise coming from it.

Kaiya also got to meet Cool Uncle Dennis.

After everyone left, Grandpa Dave treated the whole family and Uncle Dennis to Angelina's.  Yummy!!!  It was a great day in New Mexico!

.little miss kaiya's first tax season.

first things first....check me out in my jeans.  they're a little tight when i sit down, so we have to unbutton them, and they're a little too long cause i'm a shorty like mommy, but nonetheless....

okay, moving on.  mommy and daddy had an appointment at h&r block so that they could get their taxes filed.  they had a big year in 2009 with moving across the pacific, daddy starting a new job, and the most important...having little miss kaiya.  so, they wanted to make sure that they got their maximum return.  kaiya went along for the trip, of course, and was such a good little girl.  mommy fed kaiya right before the appointment so she was happy.  she uttered a couple baaahhh blaaaaa's, but that was it...and fell asleep by the end of the appointment, which only lasted 45 minutes.  

after they were done at h&r block, mommy and daddy took kaiya to border's to check out some books.  we got two great books to give kaiya on her first valentine's day.  kaiya also loved the stuffed animal section that border's now has.  here's her and daddy playing with the "where the wild things are" monster...

although kaiya is a good sleeper at night, her naps on the other hand have been an issue.  since kaiya was a few weeks old, someone has had to hold her while she took her nap, otherwise she would wake up as soon as we put her down.  and not wanting her to be an overtired little babe, we gladly accepted the task...plus, whoever was holding her (mostly mommy since she stays home with kaiya) got to take a nap too.  well, being that she's almost 5 months old (what?!?) and can sleep on her belly since she's a rollover junkie, we decided to try and put her down starting just a couple of days ago.  hallelujah...it worked!  on her belly, of course.  here she is during her first nap of the day...snuggling her blankie dog, like usual.

  

daddy has the day off tomorrow, so him and mommy are going out for an early valentine's day lunch because he has to work on sunday.  valentine's day is also kaiya's 5 month birthday...pictures to follow as standard.

.rolling rolling rolling.

so miss kaiya has decided that she LOVES to be on her belly now. this morning, upon waking up to her gabbing away…mommy and daddy were shocked that she was on her belly, head held high looking at daddy. as if she were saying….ok, daddy. get up and change my diaper so i can eat breakfast. :)

she’s getting to be such a big girl. she is at the point where she no longer hates her carseat. up until about two weeks ago…she would WAIL unless someone was sitting back there with her, talking to her or shaking her o-ball. then one day…out of the blue, she was talking to her doggy, playing with her ball, looking out the window. it was GREAT! we look back at her pictures from when we first brought her home, which was only 4 months ago…and she has grown so much. she’s no longer that little baby…but definitely still the love of our lives, and we can’t get enough of her!